Keep Pushing Me
by OriginalMyhard
Summary: Cassie was forced to leave Nick by Kira when she was only fourteen. Now she's returned six years later with a problem; the future's fortelling her and Nick's deaths again...and new feelings are interfering in the fight against this new Division.
1. Push

**So, I've decided to go back through and redo some of the beginning chapters of the story, because, let's be honest, they're not exactly good, seeing as they were written...threeish years ago. I'll add a note at the beginning of each chapter that I've changed so everyone knows. :3**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything but my OCs and whatever plotline I have. If I have one. **

**Cassie's POV**

It's been six years since Nick and I made it away from the Division without much more than a scratch and an injection of soy sauce. He didn't remember what he said to Kira in her letter, and I didn't tell him. Truth be told, I didn't want him to go after her. I hoped it would keep them apart.

It didn't.

We were barely a month past the whole thing when she found us with a Watcher named Jaylyn. I hadn't heard the best about Jaylyn's Watching skills, but he was good enough to get to us, apparently, even halfway around the world, in California. Naturally, Nick welcomed Kira back with open arms. I survived it for a good six months, all of the gooey love scenes and constant kisses. The longing looks and the less-than muffled moans and groans late at night. It all disgusted me. I was tempted to shove Kira off of a cliff on more than one occasion, but I knew that would only hurt Nick. And that wasn't something I wanted to have weighing on my conscience.

On my fourteenth birthday, Nick promised me a trip to a nearby Carnival. I shouldn't have been excited at the prospect of such a childish thing and I played it off as such. But it was going to be with Nick. And that would make it perfect. I even blocked my Visions, hoping to keep any surprises he had in store for me. Something special, just for me.

Yeah, I know. We're eight years apart and he's always seen me as more of a sister. It didn't stop me from hoping that maybe he had some sort of feelings for me.

Apparently, I was a thick thirteen-year-old.

By the time the big day arrived, I was exhausted from halting my Visions whenever they began. I was putting everyone in danger doing what I was doing-the Division could have been after us at that very moment, and I wouldn't have known. So sue me; I wanted a bit of a surprise. And I got it. Sort of.

Turns out Kira wasn't as good as everyone seemed to think. She may have been Pushed into thinking her and Nick hadn't really been together, but she _was_ a part of the Division. Still is. Since she killed Henry, she even took over. And I was at the top of her shit-list.

Of course, I didn't know any of this much until later, when both Kira and I were long gone.

The day of the Carnival, I woke early, dressed as quickly as I could, and was halfway out the door into the busy Los Angeles streets when I was shoved against the refrigerator. Fingers clasped tight around my neck, squeezing too tight to allow any noise to escape my throat but not tight enough to cut off all air.

"You leave now and I won't kill you." Kira swooped into my black-rimmed line of vision. Her eyes darkened and bored into mine. I fought as hard as I could against her Push and somehow managed to tear my gaze away before she was able to complete it. In retrospect, maybe I should have let her.

"No," I spat, having just squirmed away just enough to utter that one word. I shoved back against my assailant, but she was too strong for me. Kira's face darkens and her fingers flexed against my neck.

"I could do it in a second. Nick already does everything I say-I probably wouldn't even _have_ to Push him to get him to pull the trigger on himself." My eyes, already bugged from the pressure, widened even more. She could threaten me all she wanted, but threatening Nick was out of the question. And a quick skip to the future told me that her words were more than true. I could have seen that without Seeing it.

Kira knew she had me. She grinned, let go of me, and left, saying only, "Your bags are already outside."

I left.

Not just because of Nick and Kira. I needed to find my mother. But I didn't think about that until after I was gone. It became an excuse for me. I left because I needed my mother and I needed my space from him. From Nick.

I still Watched him carefully, though, over the years. I knew exactly where he was and when. I Watched his Moving improve until he surpassed his father. I Watched as slowly, day by day, Kira's powers grew as well. Her and Nick lived off of the money she Pushed from people on the streets and he won by fixing gambling. It wasn't much different from my own way of living; all it took was a little Watching to See when someone would drop a wallet or lose something valuable.

About a year and a half after I left, Kira disappeared. So did the antidote. She must have had a Shadow with her, a very powerful Shadow, as I couldn't Watch her, no matter how hard I tried. Nick, however, was painfully easy. He went catatonic for a while after Kira left, then moved back to Hong Kong. he still worked on his Moving and beat up the occasional Division goony from other countries with the old gang. Like Scooby-Doo on crack. I could tell his heart wasn't in it, though. Watching him almost made me want to go back. Almost.

Nick never talked about me. Even after Kira left, it was like I was never there in the first place. Only once, when he was with Emily, did he mention me. Only after she asked _him_ where I was. To which he replied, "No idea," and changed the subject as quickly as possible. Feeling the love, Nick. Feeling the love.

Maybe it was a good thing that I left. I knew I was more of a burden to him than an asset at most times, even if neither of us would ever admit it to each other. He probably didn't appreciate the affections of a kid eight years younger than him either. Hero-worship, he'd call it, after which I would smack him and demand he buy me booze. Which he never would.

In my absence from Nick, my powers have flourished. Others I come across is my travels often compare me to my mother's greatness; I can see years head, though the future is always changing so quickly that I can never get a good hold on it. Some days I catch sight of Kira returning and slaughtering Nick. Other I see myself with him, doing whatever we always do. I'm still not good enough to find my mother, though I Watch constantly, searching for a glimpse of her. It all only leads me on a wild goose chase. I've been everywhere from Athens to Paris to London to _Idaho_, gathering clues to my mother's mast plan. I have letters from her to others, pictures of her and my father, pieces of jewelry that I took to Sniffs and Readers to help me but that only led me to another set of random objects.

My mother is missing, Kira is missing, and the antidote is missing. The future is a jumbled mess, but there's one clear outcome that I See constantly.

Death.

**As we know, I did become quite involved in this story, which is nice, because I like it and I love all my readers for going through it. I hope that those who are going back through to see the changes are pleased with what they find-I've found that my writing has changed vastly throughout this experience and I don't really like looking at how horrid these chapters were pre-change. XD For those of you who are new to **_**KPM**_**, be glad that you're getting this version. It makes a lot more sense. :3**


	2. Watch

**Yes, this is another changed chapter. Lololololmylifefails. Prz enjoy it prz.**

**Nick's POV**

An obnoxious, insistent knocking jolts me out of my dreamless slumber. Instinctively, I Move a set of handguns I keep under my pillow to hover above the door. I've been waiting for the return of the Division for a while-it's been too quiet in Hong Kong for the last few weeks. At this time of the morning, I have little doubt that it's anyone else. My hand reaches tentatively for the latch, shakily undoing it while I try to make out the blurry silhouette on the other side of the door.

"Niiick," the familiar voice whines from the other side of the door. "Let me iiin. I come bearing gift." She smacks the door and it swings open without the bolt to keep it in place. And there she is, standing there like we haven't seen each other for five plus years.

"Cassie?" I choke. The guns fall to the floor.

"Who the hell else would it be?" She smirks and tosses me a small package, which hits my uselessly outstretched fingers and falls to the grimy ground. Cassie immediately makes herself at home. She pushes past my frozen body and goes straight to the cabinets, rummaging through them until she somehow manages to locate a stray granola bar that's probably been sitting in there since 1983. Cassie makes a satisfied noise at her discovery and peels back the wrapper as if it were a fifty-dollar bill.

"You really need to get better food," she says through a mouthful.

"You don't seem to be complaining much." I've somehow managed to collect myself enough to move from my spot in front of the door and collect the package lying on the floor.

"Harrharr." Cassie sneers at me. "It's a t-shirt." She jerks her head towards the package in my hand. "You're going to be needing it if you want to be halfway presentable." My fingers slide underneath the crude newspaper wrapping, but I don't finish opening it.

I'm thrilled to see Cassie, I really am. But I don't think I want her here. Things are heating up with the Division, and Cassie will only make it more muddied. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood. Thought I'd drop in on an old friend." She wipes her fingers on her grimy clothes. Still in the hood-rat Lolita stage; too-short t-shirt, _way_ too short jean shorts, holey tights and knee-high boots. All of it looks ridiculous on her now that she's…grown up. _Really_ grown up. "Is it too early to go out to eat?"

I'd like to deny her. Tell her that I don't want anything to do with her. That I don't want to get mixed up in her business anymore since I have my own business to worry about. But something about her hopeful air makes me change my mind. Grudgingly.

"Guess not." I pick the guns up off of the floor, turn on the safety, and stick them in the back pockets of my jeans.

"Good. I'm in the mood for shrimp.

The streets are just as bustling at this time of morning as they are at any other time. Instead of women with their children or men off to their jobs, there are shady drug dealers and criminals. Usually, I have no qualms about walking around Hong Kong this early; with Cassie here, I feel like we should be hiding back at my apartment until the sun is up.

"There." The only word Cassie says to me on our search for food. She points out a small stall down an alley with an array of steaming foods on display. I shrug and follow her to a crate posing at a table. I sit while she goes and gets the food.

I'm not sure what to make of her visit. It can't be for something positive, as this is the first time that I've seen her since she ran out on Kira and I. It doesn't strike me that Cassie would come back unless she needs something from me. Something that she can't get on her own. Something probably illegal.

"I didn't know what to get you so…I didn't." Cassie flops down across from me and digs into her food. I try not to get annoyed at how completely she's avoiding telling me anything about what's going on.

"So. Where have you been?" Since she's not talking about it, I will.

"Around. What about you? Tell me your life story." She pauses in stuffing her face to give me a withering look.

"Nothing interesting. Nothing you haven't already Seen." Cassie stiffens indignantly and turns a deep pink.

"I didn't-"

"Kidding. Chill out, kid." _That_ wasn't the right thing to say. Cassie's face darkens dangerously. "I'm not a kid," she growls. "I'm nineteen years old." Her chopsticks tremble in front of her lips.

I laugh it off, waving my hand in an attempt to get her to cool down. "Already? I feel so old next to you."

"It's only an eight year difference," she refutes carefully, turning her attention to a piece of shrimp that's fallen onto her legs. I cough uncomfortably at the sudden silence.

The only sound for a while is Cassie's chewing. My fingers drum on the crate top. "How's your search been going?"

"Search?"

My eyebrows raise. "For your mother? I assumed that's why you left-"

"No, I left because your crazy fucking girlfriend forced me to." Cassie acts offhanded, but I can hear the venom in her words.

"I-what?" Okay, okay. Okay. What. Kira never mentioned…But of course she wouldn't.

"Nothing important any more." For a moment, Cassie holds my gaze. It's like she's trying to coerce me into saying something I'll regret until I realize that she's not looking _at_ me but _through _me. Her fingers twitch and, as if moved by someone else, they begin arranging noodles from her food into a picture on the table. I stare in a silent fascination. Not the usual way documents what she Sees, but maybe this is a good thing. Maybe she's long decided to give up on artwork.

It isn't her noodles that have me rapt, though. It's _her_. She's definitely grown into a…_woman_. Her face has lost all of the baby fat, slendered out and hollowed, probably from lack of proper diet. There's a scar above her right eyebrow.

"Done ogling?" She asks, her eyes still staring through me.

"What are you talking about?" I scoff, returning my gaze to her noodle-art.

"Oh, I totally didn't see you staring at me or anything." My god, she's annoying. I don't know if I'm more annoyed at her for being obnoxious or for being…completely right.

"What are you making?" I ask, trying to change the subject. She squints one eye and adds a piece of shrimp to the picture.

"Nothing pleasant."

'Since when has anything you've Seen been pleasant?" I joke. My heart hums in anticipation. I don't want to get dragged into anything Cassie's Seen, but I can't help that it excites me that I might have no other choice. Cassie pauses for a fraction of a second. She blinks rapidly and comes back to this time.

"Hmm." She backs away from her picture and allows me to take in all of its glory. I can't really tell what's going on, to be perfectly honest. It looks like a bunch of congealed noodle splatters with some shrimp thrown in. "Can you not tell what it is?" I shake my head and she sighs heavily. "That-" she points at one blob, "is you. This-" another right next to the first, "is me. All these things around us are other people. _That_-" the sauce from the noodles, "is blood."

"So we're dead?" Why does that not surprise me?

"Not quite. Well. Not all of us." Cassie chews on a strand of her hair. "We are. You and I."

"How did it happen?"

"Some sort of fight. Against people." Her fingers prod idly at a shrimp. "I should draw this before we leave…" She reaches into the bag I hadn't noticed hanging at her side and extracts a professional looking sketchpad and a package of Sharpies.

While she's drawing, I consider running away. Right away. She'd probably be able to find me again, but maybe I'd put enough distance between us to keep the deaths from happening. More alarming than my own death is Cassie's. She's been missing for six years, but that doesn't mean that I've stopped caring about her. If me leaving her like she left me means that she gets to stay alive, I'll do it.

"I think we need to find my mother as well." Cassie's voice shocks me out of my thoughts.

"Why do you think that?" She turns the sketchbook around and shows me a scribbled picture of a woman with a thick X over her mouth.

"I've Seen her."

**Herm, so now you know what Cassie Saw the first time. Funny how I decide to add things in the second time around. XD**


	3. Seen

***Changed. /toolazytoredoAN. Something to the effect of me hating writing guys' povs.**

**Cassie's POV**

"When?" Nick pushes at the mess on the top of the crate.

"As soon as possible. Finding her might help us to, you know, not die." Half of me hopes that my drawings will deter him. I don't want to be in this situation any more than he does; at least I would hope he wouldn't want himself pointing a gun at my head. Something I'd cleverly omitted from my vision's explanation.

"We'll gather the gang," he says finally. He shoves a few noodles into his mouth and nods resolutely.

"Are you…sure?" My eyebrows scrunch together. I hadn't expected him to go along with me so easily. I'd Seen him putting up quite a fight. And it's not until I catch a glimpse of _her_ face, quickly followed by a vision of tangled bodies and pleasured sighs that I understand. I should have known that she would have something to do with this. And anywhere she is, Nick will be. Isn't that how it's always been?

"I'm never sure when it comes to what you See." That makes one of us. I swipe the mess of noodles and shrimp off of the crate and lay my head down in the remaining mess. This is too much for one night.

"Cass…are you okay?"

"I'm fine." And I am. Perfectly fine.

"Obviously you aren't." Nick's hand tugs gently at a strand of my hair. "Tell me."

"Since when did you become Dr. Phil?" I tease, sitting up abruptly and moving away from Nick's touch. It caused something strange within me, something I don't particularly want to get involved with. "Let's go home." I grab my sketch pad and start to get up.

"Oh, so it's 'home' now?" Nick laughs dryly. "Figures you'd claim it."

"Hey, it'll be nice to have a home base while I can." I shrug, downing the rest of a bottle of vodka I found floating around in my bag.

Nick frowns. "You shouldn't be drinking." He looks much older than twenty-seven with that face, even though he's still mentally as bad a pre-pubescent boy.

"I'm old enough to make my own decisions." The age thing again. That's twice in less than an hour. Nick rolls his eyes but doesn't press the issue. He grabs the crook of my arm and steers us out of the alley. As we're leaving, he wraps his arm around my shoulders.

"Even if all you do is bring me bad news, it's nice to see you again, kid."

"Kid," I scoff, not letting him see how annoyed I am by that. His free fist rubs the top of my head painfully hard.

"You'll always be a spunky little kid to me."

"Damnit, Nick, that hurts!" I shout, twisting away from him.

"Tough." He puts his arm back around me, loosely this time. I don't want to admit it, not even to myself, but the thrill that runs down my spine at his touch isn't even vaguely platonic.

And then I have to remember all the times I've Seen him and Kira wrapped in a _very_ non-platonic embrace. Which is why I'll have to get used to us just being friends, before it goes too far in any other direction.

Kira stands in front of me, sleek and deadly and utterly Kira. Slowly, methodically, she drags a knife across my cheeks. I don't move, just stare her down. For ages, that's all she does. The pain is unreal, but I still don't move. She won't get the satisfaction of getting a rise out of me. "There," she says finally and moves to the side of me. Behind her is a mirror in which I can now see myself. Starting under both eyes, Kira's carved two severe diagonal lines across my face. They form a perfect, bloody x. I try to open my mouth to speak, only to find my voice unable to work. The blood from my wounds is creeping down my face, down my neck-

"Cass?" I jerk upwards, my eyes snapping open against the nightmare engraved on my eyelids. Nick is hovering above me, looking faintly concerned.

"Whattimeisit?" I slur, scrunching my eyes back closed against the sunlight streaming in through Nick's crappy curtains.

"It's noon." I flail and almost knock Nick off of the arm of his sofa, where he so unceremoniously dumped me last night. My days-long binge drinking caught up to me and I almost collapsed on the way back home. Nick, being the noble knight that he is, lifted me up and carried me all the way back. And then threw me on the couch and managed to fit in a "I told you so" lecture before I passed out. "Coffee?" Nick points to a mug sitting on the coffee table. The sharp scent assails my nostrils, and it's all I can do to nod through my pounding headache. He Moves the cup over to me with a self-satisfied smile.

"Impressive." I roll my eyes. "Damn showoff." I pluck the cup from the air, since I totally couldn't have grabbed it off of the table on my own. My lips are inches away from the sweet salvation when there's a loud knock at the door and the burning hot coffee flies out of the cup all over my front. "HOLY-" Nick rushes to the door and snatches the package from the mailman I should have Seen coming while I desperately rip at my shirt to get away from the molten liquid. Jesus, did he make this in a freaking volcano?

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," I yell, running over to the sink and simultaneously ripping off the fabric that's aiding it burning off my skin. The spout's broken, which is just in my favor; instead of flowing down when I turn on the sink, the water shoots straight out and onto my flaming skin. "Holy mother of Jesus," I pant, assessing the damage of the blistering skin leaking from under my bra.

"Um…" The rest of my skin turns red when I realize that I'm standing in the middle of Nick's kitchen in nothing but my ratty bra. This is awkward. Especially since Nick seems incapable of looking away from the train wreck of my chestal area.

"My eyes are up here." My attempt at lightening the situation and distract from my own embarrassment. It works, to a point; Nick laughs and turns away from me.

"I think I have some Aloe…" he says, disappearing into his room and returning with an old-looking bottle of Aloe-infused lotion.

"Is it good?" I eye the molding label. He regards it too, as if deliberating. He shrugs, shakes the bottle, and squeezes some out on his hand. It looks a little runny, but not too gross. As if without thinking, he slaps his hand on the red mark below my collarbone. The lotion immediately cools my skin, despite how hot I've suddenly become with Nick's hands on me.

"I-I can do that," I say. He looks up at me, blushes again, and moves away quickly.

"Sorry, I…I didn't realize…" He stammers, even his ears a bright red. I grab the bottle of lotion from him.

"No harm, no foul. Although I will be calling my attorney about the third-degree burns." I finish the job, tactfully turning my body away from Nick. I have to toss the coffee-stained shirt and rummage around through my bag, extracting the only appropriately sized shirt I have. I stand in front of a mirror in Nick's living room and comb my fingers through my hair in an sad attempt to tame it. No point in looking like a hood rat for the rest of my life.

"Okay, Miss America, what do we do first?" I stick my tongue out at Nick, who's returned to an acceptable shade of human. I pause in my ministrations.

"Emily." I haven't Seen a lot of her lately, but she was in my Vision from last night. I'm only assuming that that means she has a major part to play in whatever this is. "We definitely need to find Emily first."

"Well, isn't this your lucky day. I know exactly where she is," Nick says smugly.

"I'll be sure to build you a shrine when we're in the clear." We start for the door, me braced for the sunlight, when a dizzying premonition knocks me back against the doorframe. I vaguely feel Nick shoving a pen and my sketchbook into my hand. The pen glides across the page, revealing a tall Chinese girl with thick bangs, a lollipop in her mouth. Next to her stands a boy, a Bleeder. His mouth is stretched wide. Division members, _American_ Division members, bloom on the floor at their feet.

"What's that supposed to be?" Nick frowns at the drawing.

I shrug at first, unable to place the faces. "I don't…" And then it clicks. "It's those kids! The Pop kids-"

"They're dead."

"Obviously _not_. I saw them _alive_…" But I still stop and go back over what I Saw. True, they had a striking resemblance to the jerk Pops, but I can see the subtle differences; the wider eyes, the narrower cheeks. "They're related somehow. They have to be," I amend.

"What are we supposed to do about them?"

"I don't know," I admit. I wish I could see the _whys_ of my visions, not just the _whats_.

"You're so helpful."

"Let's see you figure it out," I say furiously. I'm already upset that I don't know what's going on-I don't need Nick getting on my case too. "I'm sorry I'm not a fucking know-it-all like you are!" My fingers grind into a fist and it's all I can do not to punch Nick. I don't understand how we've gone from awkwardly getting along to me wanting to rip out his throat in two point three seconds. This is going to be more difficult than I had anticipated.

"Jesus, I need a drink."

**/threatening for reviews. :3**


	4. Found

_A/N I AM SORRY SORRY SORRY THAT THIS HASN'T BEEN UPDATED FOR SO LONG! Okay, here's my excuse: my computer crashed a while back. When I finally got it fixed, I found that the file all of my fanfics were stored in, as well as most of my pictures, had been deleted and were not able to be recovered. SO, those next two chapters? Gonzo. And in my fit of self-pity and technological rage, I haven't touched a fanfic in FOREVER! But, now I'm finally starting to get back into it. This chapter was tapped out fairly quickly, just to hopefully quell you until I can get some actual writing done on it. And forgive me--it's been a while since I've seen the movie, so refresh me if necessary._

**Cassie's POV**

"Cassie! Are you listening to me?" Nick shouts, waving his hands in front of my eyes in some sort of intricate Tribal fashion.

"No. No, Nick. I am not listening to you. And I will continue not listening to you until you shut up about my bad habits." Yes. We leave to go gather a band of super-heroes, and instead I get a lecture on morals of a young lady. From a man. In his mid-twenties.

"My God! You're such a little brat." Honestly, something snaps inside me then. I pull back my fist and sock him in the stomach as hard as I can. I think he may have died a little inside. Good.

"Now shut the fuck up and take me to Emily." He grunts in pain, but leads me down the street. We walk in silence, me fuming, him in pain, until we reach a nondescript door in a nondescript building on a nondescript street. Lovely.

"Well. Knock!" I demand. He rolls his eyes and me and taps tentatively on the door. It opens a hairline crack and I can just make out a brown eye peeking towards us.

"Why, hello!" The door swings all the way open to reveal Emily. She looks exactly the same. Literally, exactly the same. Same well kept chocolate hair and hippy-dippy meets modern day clothing choice. And the same kind, yet condescending smile.

"Hey, Em." Nick leans in to peck her on her cheek. I grin my teeth together. What the fuck is happening to me?

"Come in, come in." We do, entering a heavily incensed room. Nick and I sit on a beaten couch while Emily takes an armchair. "What can I attribute this visit to?" Emily asks pleasantly, watching both of us carefully. I glance over at Nick.

"I think it's best if Cassie explains." Thanks for that, Nick. Thanks a lot.

"Okay. Oh, hi, by the way. Nice to see you." Emily nods. "I've been trying to find a lot of people lately."

"Your mother?" Emily asks.

"Yeah. Her…and some other people. I've been getting a lot of visions about some shitty stuff happening. Mostly concerning the Division. And Kira. I don't know if Nick explained the situation--"

"I did."

"I wasn't finished." I glare over at Nick. He shrugs and shrinks back into the sofa. "I don't know if he told you about her running away and crap. And I know he didn't tell you that I left because she threatened everyone. That's beside the point right now. We have to worry about the American Division, mostly because I believe that Kira has gone to them to aid them in capturing us. I'm sure she's a little sour about everything that's happened, and the Division members can't be too happy about it themselves."

"Where are you going with this, Cassie?" Emily asks bluntly.

"I'm getting to that." I growl. "I think it's time we take down the Division. All of them. For good."

"Cassie--" Nick starts to protest.

"Shut it, Nick. Just cuz your little booty-call is involved doesn't mean that it's any safer than it's ever been. It's a dog-eat-dog world. If we don't kill them, they kill us. And I have a little too much to experience to lie down and die right now."

Nick looks as if he wants to argue more, but Emily interrupts. "She has a valid point, Nick. It may be the time that we rally everyone behind us and take this thing down. It won't be easy…but I have some people who'll be able to help us out."

"I…may have left something out." I mutter, rummaging through my bag. I yank out my sketch book and flip to the first picture I drew earlier this morning with Nick. Emily's eyes widen.

"Is…is that an ogre?" I flip the book around to look at it.

"No--no, what are you talking about? It's a pool of blood!" She doesn't look convinced, but I continue anyway. "I Saw us…me, you, Pinky, Nick, _everyone_…dead. Around it."

"So, we just avoid pools!" Nick says. I glare daggers at him. It's not the time to make jokes.

"This might be a chance we have to take." Emily leans forward derisively. "Unless you can't take the heat, Nick." He sneers at her.

"We just have one problem…" I say.

"What's that?"

"I…don't know where Kira is. At all."

"Do you have anything that belongs to her?"

"Nick?" I turn my attention to him. He mumbles something into his lap. "What's that? Speak up!"

"I have a pair of her underwear." I die. I literally, physically, die. Of all the things that he can keep…And at this moment, I realize how completely hopeless Nick is.

"Cassie…you go get it. Nick and I need to talk, and I'll call those friends I was talking about."

"I don't want to go find Kira nasty-ass underwear!"

"Cassie." Nick says sharply. "Do it."

"I'm not your fucking slave!" I shout, but leave anyway. It's better than being with that idiot. I run back to Nick's apartment as fast a possible, dig through his drawers (not something you should do in a lonely guy's house), find the, yes, nasty-ass underwear, and book it back to Emily's. Apparently, whoever she called got there fast; there's a fancy limo sitting outside the building. I try to See who's in there…but find myself blocked.

Oh God. What if something bad happened? What if that car belongs to a Division?

I sprint to the door, kick it open, and rush it, my pocketknife flipped open and pointing towards the inside.

"Nice of you to join us." Emily says. She looks fine. As does Nick. My eyes flick over them and land on the man and woman hanging near Emily. They both have jet black hair, the girl with heavy bangs, and sucker in her mouth.

_A/N I know, it wasn't that great. I literally wrote this in a half hour. But the next one, hopefully, will be better and be up in the next few days. Spring Break soon, so lots o' time. See you next time!_


	5. Pressed

_A/N O. M. G. It hasn't been a thousand years! I really need to re-watch the movie, but I'll keep going, since so many people have been reading! 600 hits last month! I'm so happy! Do you know what would make me happier? If everyone would read my other stories! Because I love people who read. XD Anyway, enjoy! _

**Cassie's POV**

"Who are you?" I ask tentatively, my knife still held out in front of me. The girl grins and takes the sucker out of her mouth.

"My name is Xiao." Despite her petite and very feminine appearance, the girl--Xiao--has a very deep voice, rustic, almost. "And this is my brother, Zhao."

"Do you two have last names?" Nick rolls his eyes at me.

"Cass, must you be so mistrusting? Emily invited them here; you don't have to give them the third degree!"

"Excuse me for being cautious! If you remember what we've determined about these people, I'd think you might be a bit more concerned."

"What you've determined?" Zhao asks sharply. Unlike his sister, his voice is almost laughably high, as if they had gotten the wrong vocal chords at birth.

"Do you know the…erm…Pops?" Is that their real names? Hell if I know…

"Oh. Them. Yes, unfortunately."

"How?" I begin to ease my grip on the knife. Nick looks relaxed, as does Emily, and I haven't Seen anything negative to do with Zhao and Xiao (must have been a confusing childhood).

"They…are our extended family." Zhao says sadly. His sister looks sheepishly at me.

"They sort of disinherited us when we refused to use our gifts for their less than savory needs." I nod once, putting away the knife all together. I've got to learn how to trust _some_ if I'm going to make it through this alive.

"If it's not too much trouble, may I ask what your gifts are?" It would be a little more than suspicious if I just came out and knew exactly what they were. Even if I did reveal that I'm a Watcher. But, as will any intelligent person tell you, it's important to keep half of your hand hidden.

"We're Bleeders. Not very good Bleeders. But we have the power, none-the-less." Xiao answers, waving her sucker around.

"Cassie?" Nick catches my attention.

"Hmm?" I turn to him, annoyed.

"Could…could you give Emily the…er…" His eyes turn scarlet.

"Oh, you want me to give her the crabby underwear?" His eyes widen.

"THEY ARE NOT CRABBY!" Zhao and Xiao both choke out a half-laugh.

"Sure, sure." I wave my hand dismissively. "Here, Em." I hand over the underwear. Emily takes it gingerly, a faint look of distaste on her face. She closes her eyes and the air around her hands seems to vibrate. Her eyebrows knit together.

"What's going on?" I ask Nick, beginning to panic. "Why isn't she saying anything?"

"Because I can't see anything!" Emily shouts angrily. "What the fuck? Kira must have amazing Shadows on her to keep me out…" The Pops' eyes are trained on us, both of them wearing a similar expression of concern.

"How is this going to affect us?" Xiao asks.

"I assume you know by now that we're taking down the American Division." The Pops nod. "And we need to kill Kira before we can do that. She's our major threat right now."

"DAMNIT!" Emily screams, lobbing the underwear at the wall. I don't think I've ever seen Emily lose her temper so completely.

"Em. Chill." Nick whispers. He puts his arm around her, and, again, I feel an uneasy pain shoot me somewhere near my heart. I don't like this. Not at all.

"I just don't understand. When we need it the most, my powers fail. I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out." Nick says soothingly.

"X!" I shout at Xiao. She turns quickly to face me. "I need a favor of you and Z."

"What is it?" Xiao asks expectantly.

"I need you to help with some team building."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Where'd you send them to?" Nick asks me later that night from the grimy hotel bed. We'd stayed at Emily's for another few hours, beginning our planning. We decided that we'd start out together and travel around, gathering others who wanted to aid in taking down the Division. We hope that, with enough help and power, we'll be able to do it without too much trouble. I didn't bring it up, but I've decided that, eventually, I'm going to go off on my own to find my mother. I realized that Nick would be too much of a nuisance to take with me.

"While we were at Em's I Saw a couple kids that looked like they could help."

"Who?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? I don't See names, I See people." I snap.

"Don't get sassy with me." Nick glares over at me.

"Sassy? Are you fucking kidding me?" I bark out a laugh. Nick is getting older each day. This thoughts wipes the smile off my face. I must look as sad outside as I do inside, for Nick asks, "Cass, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing…But, Nick, have you ever…" I choke off and dive into the often horrific world that are my visions.

_A dark room, only a little bit of light filtering it. It's dusty, very dusty, and it chokes me. It's all I can breathe, this dust flying through the air. There's a brief burst of gunfire--something falls to my left. The picture keeps fading in and out, like something is passing in front of my eyes. Something big, something sinister. I hear a scream, feel a hand pulling on my arm._

_"This way! This way!" It's Nick. It's too dark for me to see him, but I can hear the terror in his voice. "Hurry!" Our feet pound the ground. I step on something soft and hear a crack from beneath my foot. There's a sliver of light in front of us. _

_"To the door. Come on, come on!" There's a loud bang and the sliver explodes into a large hole. Nick and I are almost there, only a few feet away. I can feel the air filtering in through the dust. Then a figure steps in front of the light. It raises a hand, attached to a gun. I see the action before I hear the sound; a recoil of the figure and the loud blast of the gun, followed by the ping of the bullet finding a home in Nick's chest._

_"No!" I yell. Only, it's not me. My voice is lower, more musical. I turn and look at the figure and see who it really is. Another bullet hits me, but not before I see that me, the real me, is the one holding the gun._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Cass? CASSIE!" Something is shaking me. I bolt upright.

"Where the hell am I?" I shout, flailing about. I jump to my feet. Everything is a rush of blended color.

"Settle the fuck down!" Someone yells and tackles me onto a bed. Finally, my vision clears and I can see Nick's face swimming above mine. Suddenly, I'm painfully aware of his body pressing against mine, perfectly molding to my every curve. I gulp tightly, trying to ignore the fire erupting in my stomach.

"Are you okay?" Nick asks. His nose is almost touching mine. It would be so easy, just to lean up a little bit…

"I'm fine." I feel my face flushing.

"What did you see?"

"Nothing. Nothing important, I should say." My heart is like a hummingbird. I don't think it's ever beat this fast. But, of course, me being me, I ruin the moment and say, "Now can you get your fat ass off of me? I'm suffocating here." Nick purses his lips and gets off quickly, muttering an apology. I sit up, straightening my blouse, which had somehow crept up a bit during the…uh…pressing?

"Um. Cass? About what you were going to say before you passed out--"

"OPEN THE DOOR!" Nick and I both whip around to face the hotel door. There's a loud thudding on the other side, and it flies open.

"CASSIE! DOWN!" I flatten myself as the gunshots begin.

_A/N Hey, so, review. A lot. Also, I've started (and sort of returned) to betaing. Go see my betaees: bananacupcake09 (who hopefully still wants me to beta…*hopeful smile*) and Lottie556. No promises on when the next chappie'll be up. It's getting crazy at school!_


	6. Saved

_A/N With summer coming up, hopefully I'll be able to write a lot more. I'm adding in some OC's…I hope you don't mind. Enjoy! :DD_

**Mira's POV**

At any moment, we can be killed.

There's three of us, three freaks living on the edge, doing everything we can to keep out of the clutches of the Division. Me, Lee, and Selby. Lee and I are brother and sister with a telepathic connection, as unbelievable as it sounds. Something about this strange connection has heightened our ability; we're two of the most powerful Phasers in the world. Or, at least, that's what we've been told by the dozens of Division members that have tried to kill us.

"How's that?" Selby asks Lee. We'd just escaped yet another Division attack and are currently residing in a run-down chicken house right outside Little Rock. Who knew Arkansas would be crawling with Division? Lee had gotten a shallow gunshot wound, and Selby, being a decent Stitch, patched him up.

"Better." Lee says. He touches the wound and winces, still. Selby hasn't quite gotten his powers down pat.

"Are you okay, Mira?" Selby turns to me, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes. I nod silently. "You sure?" Selby's very protective of me, even more so than Lee. I think it may have something to do with his own sister being abducted by the Division; he must feel guilty for that and is using me for reparation.

"I'm honestly, fully and completely okay. Quit worrying so damn much." I growl playfully. Selby's eyebrows still stay crinkled. "Really, I'm fine." His face softens into a warm smile.

"Okay, lovebirds. Stop the gushy stuff, and let's go." Lee demands, grabbing his backpack. I blush slightly and turn away quickly, reaching for my own pack. It's not that I _like_ Selby, but Lee can be way too obnoxious sometimes.

"Where are we off to, Commander?" Selby asks, snapping into a salute. I bite back a giggle.

"Asia."

"Asia?" Selby and I respond in shock.

"Yeah. Hong Kong. I've heard through the grapevine that there's a group of people trying to gather up an army to dispose of the Division." Lee's cornflower blue eyes, exactly like mine, glint with the prospect.

"Lee, never in my seventeen years have I ever heard anything that ridiculous." I say, dumbfounded. "What makes you think that that's true? Anyone stupid enough to do that is _not_ someone we need to associate ourselves with, even if that _is_ true. We'd get killed, for sure."

"Isn't that better than this? This running and hiding shit that we've been doing for ten fucking years?" Lee always gets way too worked up over things, not that I can't understand why. He got all the passion in the family; I got all the timidity and common sense.

"No, Lee, it isn't!" I say, exasperated. "When we run, we at least know that we have a _little_ more time with each other. But this…this 'Revolution' thing? You might as well shoot yourself now." Lee throws up his arms.

"God, why do you have to be so fucking annoying? I'm trying to help!"

"No, you're trying to be an idiot. And it needs to stop. I say we do what we've been doing. And if we _do _stumble upon anything with an idea that stupid, we should shoot them and leave." I gingerly touch the gun holstered at my side. I've had to use it too much. Way too much.

"Selby. What do you think?" It always ends like this. Lee and I get in an argument, and Selby is the deciding factor. Lucky for me, he's always on my side. I smile in triumph until I hear:

"I think we should go to Hong Kong."

"Are you _kidding_ me?" I shout. Selby sheepishly looks away from my evil eyes. "I would expect this from Lee. But you? Pathetic." I spit, spinning on my heel and stomping out of the broken door. _Idiots_.

"Are you Mira Kaye?" A voice asks me from behind. On instinct, I whip out my gun, cock it, and point it at whoever is standing there. An Asian girl with heavy bangs holds up her hands in surrender.

"Who are you?" I ask, my voice shaking.

"I'm Xiao." She says slowly, taking a step closer.

"Don't take another step," I threaten, trying to still the tremors traveling through my body. Like I said, I'm the timid one. "Lee! Selby! Get out here, quick!" Lee doesn't even bother with the door; he just Phases through the wall and is by my side in a second, his gun pointed like mine. Selby takes a second longer, skidding to a halt beside me. For reasons unknown to me, Selby prefers to fight the old-fashioned way-with a sword.

"Are you Lee Kaye and Selby Grundl?" Xiao asks, her hands dropping. She takes another step towards us, her eyes bright. I shoot a warning, the bullet passing just by her head, her hair ruffling from the force. She stops, blanches, and gulps.

"I'm not here to hurt you," she says with a thick Chinese accent.

"How do we know you're not part of the Division?" Lee asks warily.

"Or worse?" Selby follows up, his sword glinting menacingly in the sunlight. Believe it or not, we have come across a few people that are worse than the Division. But we try not to think about them, if at all possible.

"No, no! I am not here to hurt you!" She shakes her head furiously. I glance over at Selby, who shrugs. "I was sent here to…uh…recruit you."

"Recruit us for what?" Lee asks sharply. I look over at him; he's perspiring heavily and has that same glittery look in his eyes. My stomach drops. I'm thinking the worse. Every time Lee talks passionately about something, it almost always happens, even if no one else wants it to. Naturally, one of the things I'm most adamant about would happen the quickest.

"An uprising. Against the American Division." Lee lowers his gun and turns to me in victory.

"I told you! I _told_ you!"

"We're not going." I say to Xiao in a steely voice. "Now, if you'd excuse us, we were just about to leave."

"Wait! Please, you _must_ help us! A Seer told me that you three would be great help to us." I roll my eyes. Nothing she can say will change my mind.

"A Seer? Who, might I ask?" Selby says. He catches my arm when I start to walk away. "Just one minute, Mir. This…might be something good, for us," he says to me under his breath. If anyone but Selby had asked me to stop, I would have said no. But, as it is him…

"Fine," I say grudgingly, staying at his side.

"Her name is Cassie." Xiao says tentatively, hope beginning to come through in her voice. "She is a very strong girl, and she sent me yesterday to come right to this spot, and here you are, just as she said!"

"Cassie?" Selby asks Xiao. She nods enthusiastically. "What…what does she look like?" Even I notice the edge to Selby's question.

"Er…she is, about yay tall," Xiao gestures with her hands, "and has blonde hair with other colors in it." Somehow, I imagine Xiao doesn't have a good English vocabulary.

"We'll go." Selby grunts out a few seconds after Xiao finishes.

"What?" I exclaim, pulling away from him. He leans down until he's face to face with me.

"Please, Mir, _please_ do this for me." I jerk my head away in disgust. He grabs my chin and pulls me back to face him. "Please." I glare into his eyes, his begging, pleading, _pitiful_ eyes.

"Okay." I grumble. Selby's face splits into a wide grin, and he kisses my cheek quickly. I sigh. I can't stay angry at this guy.

"Take us to them?" Selby asks Xiao. I look at Lee, who's practically dancing in triumph.

Fuck my life.

_A/N Ahh, shee-it. We don't find out what happened to Nick and Cassie? DAYUM! That'll be the next chapter. I'm starting to see a whole new direction for this one. It's quite exciting for me. BUT tell me if you don't like the new OC's, and I'll go back to just Cassie's POV and make them more minor. And I didn't really go into them as much as I would have liked to, because I was to see your reaction first. Please, please, PLEASE! Tell me what you think!1111111111111!eleven! Oh, and I need a beta. PM me if you're interested!_


	7. Escaped

_A/N Holy freaking cow eating monkey muffin! Two chapters at once? What the hell's wrong with me? Well…several things. But because I was soooo nice and did this, I need a couple of things from you, my wonderful, beautiful, loverly, readers. One, again, go read my other stuff. It would make me jizz all over the place, and I know how much you want that. Two, check out my beta-ees: bananacupcake and Lottie564. /fin_

**Cassie's POV**

I can't breathe.

I try to suck in the air, try to supply the oxygen to my screaming lungs, but all I get is mouthfuls of feathers and dust. Somewhere to my left, I hear Nick, groaning. I struggle upwards, screeching at a biting pain in my side.

"Nick?" I scream. The shots are still raining around us, but, somehow, no more hit me. Not surprising; I can't see my own hand, so I doubt the assaulters can see us.

"Cass!" I follow the sound of Nick's labored shout, grab on to him, and haul him over to where I remember the window is. I loop my arm through both our bags then feel for the latch and struggle to get the window open, hoping to whatever there is to hope to that the bullets pinging about won't hit us. Luck is with us. Somehow.

The bullets may not be killing us, but the window won't open. I groan.

"Hold on to me, Nick. For your life." I feel his arms tighten around me. I fumble around beside me until my hand closes around a hotel chair, and I throw it through the smooth glass. Finally, there's some light in here, but I don't take a second to see who's behind us.

Before even I realize what's happening, Nick and I are flying through the air. It's very dark, the only light coming from the various restaurants, bars, and strip clubs still open at this time of night. From ten stories up, I don't imagine we'll end up getting off without something breaking. At the very best. However, Lady Luck strikes again, and we land in a dumpster brimming with the hotel's trash.

There are shouts coming from the window above us, and, as much as I don't want to, I play the hero and bury Nick and I deep in the trash. Nick, though looking extremely pale, is still here enough to help out a little and have the common sense to keep quiet, something I can't say he's ever been able to do before. I clutch his hand, trying to keep my breathing shallow.

Footsteps appear close to us seconds later. I press a shaking hand against my mouth to try to stifle any other noises I may have the misfortune of making. Nick does the same, looking up at me with wide eyes. We both stare at each other, keeping as still as dead bodies, waiting for the footsteps to leave. They run into the alley we're hiding it, stopping not five feet away.

"Which way did they go?" A deep voice asks.

"I'm not sure," another voice says. "I can't get a Reading on them."

"Well, fucking try harder!" The first voice barks. "If we don't bring them back, Kira'll kill us both!" My heart stops when I hear her name. _Kira_. This just makes the situation ten times worse. I could handle just a few random Division cronies, I could handle Carver coming back to life and seeking revenge. The one thing I _can't_ do is practically staring me in the eye.

Without much premeditation, I press my finger to my lips, then start to move upwards through the garbage as quietly as I can.

"What are you doing?" Nick hisses.

"Shut up and be ready to help me out." He clenches his jaw, but nods. I peek over the edge of the dumpster, then duck back down. Both men are turned just so; if they should decide to look this way, there's no way they wouldn't see me. Well. Get the job done quickly.

I feel to my thigh, thankful that I'd had the foresight to fasten a gun there. I slip it out, cock it, and, in a blinding movement, jump out of the trash can and shoot with surprisingly good aim at the two Division agents. One of them falls immediately, his brains splattered on the wall behind him. The other acts just as quickly as I, drawing a gun and pointing it at me. We stand, facing each other, waiting for the other to make a move.

"Well?" The man says. "Are you going to shoot me, or not?"

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of inviting you to my next tea party. Who knows? We might become fabulous friends!" I snarl. I'm confident enough with my gunsmanship to know that this guy doesn't stand a chance.

"Harry?" Three more agents bolt around the corner. Shit. Okay, maybe he stands a chance, now.

"Umm…Nick?" I call. "You…may want to come help me, now." Nick jumps out of the dumpster. He makes a sweeping motion towards the three new guys, knocking them against the alley wall. I take that distraction to lodge a bullet in the other man's head. Nick looks like he's about to do something kickass when he falls to the ground, clutching at his chest. I quickly take care of the other Division members, then rush to his side.

"Oh, God." In the distance, I hear sirens. "Fuuuuuck." I hoist Nick up, throw him over my shoulder, and rush away from the sirens. Thankfully, I remember a place from way back when where no one questions when someone walks in with a man bleeding all over the place. Called simply 'Black', it's an underground, very hush-hush place, for, frankly, criminals. I sprint there, hoping to God that it won't end like this. I try to See, but something's blocking my Sight.

"How can I help you?" A woman asks from the other side of the door leading to Black.

"Please, I-I just need a room. Quick." The door swings open and I'm jostled in.

"Whoa. What happened to him?" A scantily dressed woman regards Nick carefully.

"Long story. Just, get me somewhere quiet." She nods and leads me down a long hallway, past the door that leads to the pub, past various other rooms, to one at the very end of the hall. I open the door and am astonished to see a half-way decent looking room, complete with two soft-looking beds and a clean bathroom.

"Thank you, very much!" The woman nods shortly and closes the door behind me. I gingerly lay Nick down on the first bed, then sit down next to him.

"Nick? Nick, can you hear me?" He groans. "Sorry, this is going to be really awkward for you later, but it has to be done." I rip off his bloodied shirt, and pull his pants down as far as they'll go without showing too much.

"God, damn." I close my eyes, trying to get accustomed to Nick's ruined chest. There's blood all over, with a huge wound right under his heart. I run to the bathroom and fill up a bowl I find under the sink with warm water, then grab a towel and rush back to Nick, who's beginning to whimper.

I spend at least an hour carefully scrubbing off the blood and stilling the bleeding from the wound. It's a little difficult, as there's still a bullet wedged in there.

"I hope you aren't overly prone to infection…" I mutter, resorting to using a pair of tweezers I've had stashed in my bag for five years to dig out the bullet. The type of bullet the Division uses must not yield much shrapnel; when the bullet finally comes out, it's completely and perfectly intact.

The wound, though wide and gnarly, isn't as deep as I'd previously assumed. I don't see bone, at least, and that's good enough for me. At just the perfect moment, as I'm moping up more blood, my eyesight fades out…

_Xiao is back, with three of the seven I sent the Pops out to find. One of them…is a Stitch. He's working on Nick, binding up his wound quickly. And Nick looks quite well, despite the open hole in his chest. _

For once in my life, I think I may have actually Seen something good. The best part is that the clock in the Vision, which I now see sitting between the two beds, read the date for Thursday, at 3 a.m. It's almost three on Wednesday morning! Twenty-four hours…

With all this luck I'm getting tonight, I highly doubt that the future will have such results.

I go back to cleaning Nick's wound, when, suddenly, he bolts upright. I morph my shriek of surprise with a coughing fit.

"Cass! Are you okay?"

"I'm good. I'm more worried about you at this point." Nick looks down at his chest, his eyes widening.

"Ow." He says in surprise.

"Ow, is right. You had me scared shitless." He pushes himself up. "Nick, you really shouldn't-"

"You're hurt." I follow his gaze. Oh. It appears I am. There seems to be a large amount of blood on my right side. Nick touches it gently, then lifts my shirt to reveal the wound. "'Tis just a flesh wound," I say with a sigh of relief. A scratch, really. Nothing like Nick's.

"Cassie…you saved us." He looks back up at me.

"Yeah, don't get used to it." I say gruffly, pulling my shirt back over the scratch.

"I'm impressed. I don't think you've ever done anything for anyone else." He teases.

"Like I said, don't get used to it. This was a one time thing. Next time, you're dead." I tease back. He reaches over and ruffles my hair. I sigh. Moment killed. Instead of leaving my hair in a mess, though, Nick smoothes it back, his hand traveling down my hair to my cheek, where it stops, cupping, _cupping_ my face. As much as I wouldn't like it to, I feel my cheeks flush. Nick chuckles.

"You really aren't the same girl from six years ago, are you?" I watch him with wide eyes, my breath catching in my throat. Nick's smile fades, replaced by…something that I can't quite place my finger on. His thumb strokes my cheek, and starts to lean in. My eyes flutter shut.

"_Like a virgin, touched for the very first ti-ime!"_ Damnit. Nick stops his movement, dropping my face and edging a bit away from me. Fucking phone. It's more of a cock-blocker than the Division. I sigh angrily and reach for my bag, rummaging around until I find it.

"Hello?" I snap.

"It's Xiao. We're on our way back." As pissed off as I am, it's good to hear those words.

"How long?"

"About a day. Hopefully less. It just depends on who we run in to."

"Got it. Meet us at Black. Describe me to the woman and she'll bring you to us." I'm glad I don't have to explain where Black is; somehow, I believe that Xiao knew about it long before I did.

"See you soon." Xiao says.

"Bye." I flip the phone closed and turn back to Nick, hoping that the mood isn't completely dead. Unfortunately, Nick _is_ dead. Dead asleep. I sigh, get a bandage wrapped around Nick (which isn't easy with him not being able to cooperate), clean myself up, and settle in to try to get some sleep.

_A/N Is it me, or is Cassie going soft? Something's got to change…Anyway, you got two to keep you going, now review and don't hound me, bro! :DD_


	8. Bleed

_A/N: Okay, people. It's been a quick-ish update. You know what I'm sorta angry about? NO REVIEWS! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU! I ONLY GOT, LIKE, THREE REVIEWS! *pouts in corner* Does this mean I have to go back to threatening? Because I'll do it. I swear to God, I will do the 'if I don't get such and such views, I won't post the next chapter. :ppppp'. I'll do it. So review, and I won't have to xD. Anyway, enough about me. The story. This is an OC chapter, the next will be regular, then the one after that will be the last OC POV. K? K._

**Alysia's POV**

My feet move in tandem with the thumping bass. My hands streak through the air, twisting, flying, creating a story.

"Hey baby, nice moves," a man says from behind me, his alcohol breath fanning across my face. "Why don't you take the move that sweet ass back to my place." I swing my body around, still moving to the music.

"Not likely, _baby_," I hiss, moving away from him with a look of disgust. I don't come to clubs for creepy men to hit on me, much as it seems weird of me to say that. I come to escape the constant worry that someone will capture me. That I might not live to see the next day.

"Sorry, doll, but I don't think you have a choice." I freeze, feeling the gun press against my temple. There are screams around me from the other club-goers. There's a mad scramble to the door. "No one else needs to get hurt," the man whispers in my ear, licking my earlobe.

"The Division?" I breathe, slowly inching my hand down to the switch-blade I carry with me at my side.

"None other. But, if you're lucky, I might just keep you for myself." He sweeps my long black hair over my shoulder and presses his lips to the back of my neck. "You're too pretty to get rid of." My long fingers close around the knife and I flick it open, a little click of a sound. One smooth movement and I lodge the blade in the man's throat, kicking him to the floor, where he struggles to breath around the cool metal.

"I know." I say. I glance around; the club is empty, except for about ten people, obviously Division members, closing in around me.

"Now, now, Alysia. You're surrounded. Trying anything will get you killed," another man threatens, pointing his gun at me. I fill my lungs with air.

"EVERYBODY COVER YOUR E-" One of the member's warning shout gets cut off by my scream, so shrill it shatters the bottles of alcohol lining the bar, so strong it shakes the rafters of the building. All of the member fall to their knees, many with blood dripping out of their ears.

Without waiting to see if any of them made it, I dash from the dance floor, my heels thudding against the ground, my heart thumping a beat not unlike the one still gracing the club. I stagger up the steps and shove through the outside door, taking in deep gulps of the thick New York air.

"God, why?" I whine. "Why now?" I skid around a corner, diving into a doorway, and I hear footsteps streaking past me. "It's been three fucking years. I just got my life back on track." I take a deep breath, look both ways, and start down the alley I'm in, the opposite of the footsteps I still hear.

"Hey, lady, get your own squat," a scruffy man shouts at me when I accidentally tread on his fingers.

"Sorry, sorry, just, _please_, be quiet," I plead.

"Don't tell me to be quiet, missy!" The homeless man staggers to his feet, absolutely thundering now. "I don't know why you young kids nowadays think you can walk all over-" I happen to glance down to the mouth of the alley and see two men in suits stopped, watching us.

"Shit," I mutter. "Cover your damn ears," I tell the homeless man, then let loose another scream, shards of glass from the windows of the faceless buildings raining down on me. I don't bother seeing if I got the Division idiots; instead, I race down to the end of the alley, through a random doorway, and out into a street I didn't recognize. I keep running, weaving through alleys and side streets and abandoned buildings until I reach a safe-house I remember from when I first arrived here.

"Elsa?" I whisper at the door. It swings open to reveal the robust woman, who gathers me up in her warm embrace.

"Oh, Miss Alysia, we wuh vehwy wohwied about you!" Elsa says. I'm not sure where she's from, exactly, but she can't pronounce 'r's to save her life. "Please, please, come in, deah." She pushes me in the cozy little house, making a complete scan of the street before closing the door behind her and bolting it shut.

"I'm sorry for intruding. It'll only be for one night." I scrutinize the dingy apartment, trying to find somewhere clean enough for me to sit. I settle for a perch on the counter-top.

"Nonsense. My house is yoh house." Elsa bustles around the small kitchen, preparing whatever she was preparing before I showed up.

"Late night guests?" I ask with a tinge of curiosity. When I lived with Elsa, people were always popping in and out, usually the most intriguing people.

"Yes, as a mattuh of fact. Just awwived a few moments ago. He's in the showah now." Now that she mentions it, I _can_ hear the gentle woosh of the shower.

"He?" I ask. Yeah, I'm running from the Division as we speak, but there's always time for a little bit of action. Don't hate. Just as I am about to interrogate Elsa a little more thoroughly, the water shuts off. There is a bit of scuffling, then the door opens, revealing a boy, in his late teens. He's a pudgy Chinese kid. Too bad. _(A/N I hope everyone knows that the author of this fic in no way condones prejudice in finding someone attractive, and this is simply the character! :D)_

"Hello." I say blandly, turning back to Elsa. "Now, I don't suppose you have a little extra room, do you?"

Elsa looks at me disapprovingly. "Alysia, this is Zhao. Zhao, Alysia." I wave briefly. Come on, Elsa, get a hint. I'm more interested in talking to _you_ right now.

"Room?" I remind, irate.

"You can have yoh old bed. Unfohtunately, foh _you_, Zhao will be shahwing the woom."

I roll my eyes. "That's absolutely wonderful."

"Please, don't be wude." Elsa scolds.

"I hope you don't snore." I shoot Zhao a look. He just shrugs.

"Not that I know of." I stifle a laugh. Is that really his voice? He seems to notice me biting back my laughter, for his lip quirks up knowingly. "Division?" He asks, rubbing furiously at his hair with a towel.

"Mmhmm. You?" I only answer because of the fear I acquire from Elsa's death glare.

"Yep. My sister and I are Bleeders."

"I'm a Bleeder, too," I say with a touch of surprise.

"You don't look like one," Zhao sneers, looking me up and down.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing." And now he won't answer any of my proddings. Well. Rude, much?

After more pleasantries, I plod off to bed, plopping down on top of it without taking off my clothes. No way am I going to be naked in a room with a fug.

The door opens, and Zhao slips in. He sits on the edge of my bed. "Excuse me, Alysia?" He asks in his ridiculously high-pitched voice. I stiffen.

"Yes?" Who knew one word could drip with so much venom?

"I have a proposition for you."

_A/N Wow, that was bad, and a fail of a cliffhanger...But the next one has Cassie and Nick and the gang. Yay. *deadpans* So. Srsly. I'm threatening to threaten if I don't get more reviews. I can't get better if no one tells me what I'm doing wrong. Don't worry, I can take it. And I wouldn't mind a beta reader. *hint hint*_


	9. Pwned

_I'll keep it short. REVIEW! :D (PS, listen to Maybe, This Time by Ok Go! when reading this chapter!)_

**Cassie's POV**

"What the fuck took you so long," I hiss through the opening in the door. Xiao is there with three others, two who are typically Aryan, obviously brother and sister, and another boy, who's as dark as the siblings are fair.

"We got laid over. Sorry." Xiao says. "Can we come in?" Do I hint a touch of sarcasm? I let them through nonetheless, rubbing at my eyes. I haven't slept. Nick, however, hasn't woken.

"What happened to him?" The light-haired boy asks, annoyingly.

"None of your fucking business," I snap. The boy raises his hands in surrender, muttering something under his breath. I flip around to face the other two. "If you have anything smart-ass to say, I suggest you do it now and get it out of the way." The girl looks absolutely petrified, a shade away from being white enough to reflect the small amount of light from the lamp. The other boy simply shakes his head, a little smirk teasing his features. I narrow my eyes. He looks vaguely familiar.

Xiao collapses on my bed, stretching out with her arms behind her head. I clear my throat and she pops back up. "Oh, uh, sorry. This is Mira, Lee, and Selby." She says tiredly, waving at the brother and sister first, then at the dark haired boy. "Guys, this is Cassie."

"Which one of you is the Stitch?" I get right down to business. Much to my chagrin, when I checked Nick's wound last afternoon, I found the bullet hole oozing some sort of green goop.

"I am," Selby says timidly, stepping forward. I gesturing towards Nick, rubbing at my forehead.

"He needs Stitched up."

"I-Well, I'm n-not the, uh, the best-"

"Just do it," I growl. His eyes widen and he goes over to Nick, leaning over him so I can't see what's going on.

"And you two must be the Phasers." I say, turning back to Lee and Mira. Mira's color is beginning to return, albeit barely.

"Er, yeah." Mira squeaks.

"Show me," I demand. "There's no one in the room toward the right. Just phase in and back." Mira doesn't look like she can move at all, let alone Phase, but Lee approaches the wall confidently. I watch in withheld excitement as his arm, then his torso, then his whole body seems to melt through the wall. He Phases back seconds later with a smug expression.

"Impressive." I dead pan. "I don't suppose Xiao told you why you're here?"

"Sort of." Selby says from over Nick. I strain my neck around the boy ('boy'; he can't be much younger than me) and see that Nick is half-awake, groggily sitting up as Selby works on his chest. I try to catch Nick's eye, but he avoids it. Even in my insane-lack-of-sleep state, my heart thumps unevenly. "She told us that you're staging a rebellion against the American Division."

"I suppose that covers it, mostly. I've Seen a few people who will be great assets in helping us accomplish this. You have a choice to make, though. Right here, right now." The room falls silent. Even Nick (who's rapidly looking better) seems to stop breathing. "You'll probably be killed if you choose to help us. We'll all probably be killed. It's not a risk I'm not willing to take if it means killing Kira-" Nick's face hardens. "-Taking down the Division." I hurriedly try to cover my mistake.

"You thought you were risking your life before? Joining us means that you'll never be able to lead into a peaceful future. It all ends here." I pause, glancing around the room. It's deathly still, except for Selby's fingers rapidly moving across Nick's skin. "I'm going to get alcohol. Take your time to decide." I finish. "Remember, though. If you accept the challenge, we're all in this together. Period."

I leave before anyone (namely, Nick), can interject anything stupid. Even this early in the morning, Black is bustling with all kinds of unsavory characters. I trace my well-worn path to the bar, plopping down on a stool. Before, I used the alcohol to heighten my visions. Now I use it to dull my feelings. If I'm going to go through with this, there's no reason to have my emotions getting in the way like they almost did back in the room. Okay, if it wasn't obvious enough already, I have an ulterior motive for going along with this 'taking down the Division' thing. I still haven't really figured out why this went from 'find my mother' to 'full-out rebellion.' They must be connected, somehow.

"Same." I tell the bartender. He shoves a dirty glass full of Vodka into my hand. I trace the rim, lost in the thoughts that I've been trying to keep down. No, nothing about how completely stupid it is to be doing this, nor of my plans to sneak away soon and find Mom. No. All I can think about is Nick. Nick and his goofy ideas, Nick and his shiny smile, Nick and his body, his body pressing down into mine, his lips…I shake myself.

"Stop it, Cass. Just stop it," I tell myself. A suspicious looking man glances over at me like I'm crazy. I stick my tongue out at him.

"Hey." Nick plops down next to me. I look at him in shock.

"Nick! Wha-what are you doing here? Are you okay?" I practically yell, then lower my voice to keep the angry patrons from yelling at me. "How's your chest?"

"Didn't know you cared," Nick jokes, again. My back stiffens.

"Yeah, well. You can't exactly get yourself killed, now can you? That wouldn't be very helpful." I say shortly.

"Listen, Cass, I need to talk to you about something."

"Oh, joy." I roll my eyes, downing half of my drink in one gulp.

"That's not good for you," Nick scolds. I flip him off. "Cassie." I look over at him, raising my eyebrows expectantly. "I think you might be wrong about this."

"What are you talking about?" I say coldly. Between his attitude, my lack of sleep, and the vicious Vodka in my system, I'm not in the best mood. And I definitely don't need Nick-Know-It-All fucking with me right now.

"All of this," he sweeps his arms around, grimacing slightly. "I'm still sore from the shot," he says in unwanted explanation.

"You have to be more specific. There's nothing that I can think of that isn't not right."

"Look, you've spent your whole life being right, all the time." I open my mouth to argue, but he raises his hand. "_Always_. It may not have happened exactly how you expected, but your visions are always right."

"We're not dead."

"Not yet." I fall silent. He may be right, there. "Don't you think that, _maybe_, this time, you're wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong about what we're doing," I growl. "Do you _want_ the Division to stay strong?" He doesn't say anything. "It's about Kira, isn't it," I ask, the truth clear before he even answers. "That's pathetic, Nick. You're damn stupid if you think that what that is is real. Even _I_ know that."

"You don't know anything, Cass. Not about real life. You're just a kid."

I suck in my cheeks. "Just a kid." I bark out an incredulous laugh. "Don't forget that I'm the _kid_ that saved your sorry ass just a day ago. Ungrateful asshole.

"Nick, you think you're so goddamned great, but you never even stop to think about what everyone else has done for you. Don't you think that, maybe, this time, _you're_ wrong? Or are you too fucking holy to be wrong?"

"Don't act like this," Nick mutters, glancing at his hands, the same hands that cupped my face so gently hours before.

"Fine. I won't. But if you want out, leave now. If you come back to the room, you're as bonded as those other kids. I meant it when I said that it's all or nothing. But I'd rather you leave. Go find Kira all by yourself. Maybe you'll be good enough to join up with the Division." I spit, standing abruptly. "And, if you see her, tell my mother hello." I storm out, leaving Nick, who doesn't even bother to follow me. He's changed a lot since I first met him. He's lost all of that fire that I loved about him.

Loved.

What a fucking notion. I'd have to have only a tenth of a brain to love him.

_Okay, so, dears, I got more reviews…well, more than usual within the first few hours of posting, so I guess the threatening to threaten worked? I guess I'm threatening to threaten again. O.o Anyway, what do you think of the OC's? Are they bogging down the story too much? Cuz, if they are, I can cleverly kill some of them off or something. But. Yeah. Keep reviewing! And, I wouldn't mind at all if you told all of your dearest friends to read it. *hint hint* AAAAAAND...I want to do a collab with someone. Not sure what about, but I want to do one. Interested? Pm me._


	10. Moved

_So. Hi dudes. It's been a while. _ FORGIVE ME! Anyway, I finally watched the movie again. Funny thing…somehow, I completely forgot about the injection and everything. How did that happen? So…Heh. Anyway, I lied. This next one isn't an OC, but the one after this will be. Or maybe I won't even right another OC…I haven't decided yet. Okay. Here we go._

**Nick's POV**

It's well past five in the morning when Cassie stumbles into the room. Selby, Lee, and Mira are all crashed out across the beds, and Xiao left hours ago to find our next person. I'm sitting at the desk, tapping my fingers anxiously on the faux wood. I'd stayed at the bar for three hours, hoping Cassie would come back. She was being completely irrational.

"Nice of you to stay," she slurs, slamming the door behind her.

"You're going to wake them up" I hiss, Moving her back into the hallway. She stumbles back towards me, then rolls onto the wall. "Cass!"

"Nick," Cassie says. She collapses into a fit of giggles.

"You're drunk." I step back from her, just now taking in the dirt staining her knees and the smell of cigarette smoke clinging to her hair.

"I am, I am, I am," she laughs. "Nick!" Cassie says my name, accompanied by a giggle. "Nick, Nick, Nick. You're still in love with her, aren't you?" Cassie looks up at me from under her eyelashes. I freeze.

"I don't know what you mean." I hate Cassie drunk. Hate. Her mood swings faster than I can keep up.

Cassie blinks at me slowly, pushing off the wall and coming towards me. I stumble back a step, a little ripple of pain moving through my body. Selby was telling the truth when he said he wasn't the greatest Stitch. But I'm not dead, so I won't complain.

"Kira," she says softly, her jolly manner completely erased. "You're still in love with Kira."

"I'm not." Cassie's cornered me, my back pressed against the wall. I don't know how someone so small can intimidate me so much. She's only nineteen for Christ's sake!

"You are." And her hand slaps across my cheek.

"Ow," I say in surprise, grabbing her wrist when it comes back for seconds. "You don't want to do that."

"I do," she growls. Then throws up on my feet.

Lovely.

**Cassie's POV**

"Ugh," I groan, sitting up in the bed I suddenly find myself in. My head it aching and my tongue feels like lead. I collapse back onto my pillows, grasping at my head.

"You're awake?" It's a girl's voice. I glance over to find Mira sitting next to me. She grins at me. "Hi. Coffee?" I accept the mug she shoves at me.

"Where is everyone?" I ask, scrunching my eyes shut at the light from the lamp she has on.

"Blowing steam around Black. Actually, Zhao just got back with the new girl, and they're filling her in. While blowing steam." Mira frowned a little. I guess she isn't pleased about the new girl, who I Saw as quite the character.

"Wonderful." I sip at the strong coffee. "So I guess you've decided to join us?"

Mira nodded thoughtfully, staring at a spot above my head. "Yeah. Lee wanted to, and Selby decided it would be a good idea. I wouldn't have been able to talk them out of it even if I tried." She brushed her tangled blonde hair out of her face, which made me feel up to my own hair. What…what is that? A chunk-

"Oh god," I moan, the events of last night rushing back to me. Nick and I's fight, my wandering around the streets for hours, smacking Nick…throwing up on Nick.

"Are you okay?" Mira looks a bit concerned. I gulp heavily, trying to keep down the sudden nausea.

"Er…yeah. I'm fine." My head. It aches. I haven't had a hangover this bad since…since back in the day, when Kira was still good and Nick was still completely out of my league. Which he still is. Not that I care, or anything.

And then the vision hits me harder than before.

I motion frantically for something to write on, and feel a piece of paper slide under me and a pen forced into my fingers. I draw for at least ten minutes, trying to get everything I see down perfectly. This. Is a doozy. This could change the whole fucking situation.

Ignoring the pain in my head and the mess I'm in, I throw my feet over the side of the bed, tucking the paper into my jeans. "Where did you say they were?" I ask Mira impatiently.

"Last time I was with them, they were in the bar," she says. I chug down the rest of my coffee and sprint out the door, dodging around patrons of Black to get to the bar. Sure enough, our little party is arranged around a table, next to a particularly tough looking man missing an eye.

"Nick," I say breathlessly, barely giving the rest of them the light of day. "I have something." He holds up a finger, gesturing for whoever was speaking to continue. "I don't have time for this," I growl, grabbing his hand and pulling him away.

"What do you want, Cassie?" Nick hisses.

"Look," I say simply, shoving the paper at him. He unfolds it.

"What is it?"

"What do you _think_ it is?" I ask, exasperated.

"Is it…it looks sort of like a lint roller." He tilts the paper to the side. "Or…or a bat?"

"It's a syringe, you dolt!"

"A syringe?" Nick squints his eyes at the picture. "Okay, I sort of see it." He gives the drawing back. "So what?"

"So...SO WHAT? Nick, this is _the_ syringe."

"What-you mean-"

"Yes. Yes I do."

Nick frowns. "But, Kira took it when she left."

"Yeah, I know. I Saw that. I was _extremely_ pissed off about it, by the way, but there wasn't really anything I could do, now was there?" I shake my head. I mustn't let what happened then get in the way of what's happening _now_. "My point," I continue excitedly, "is that she's going to lose it. Soon."

"Lose it." Nick looks more than a little incredulous.

"What are you, a fucking parrot?" I hold up my hand. "Don't answer that. I don't know why, but Kira's going to be moving the antidote syringe thing. All I picked up on is that it's pretty much the last one. Something happened to the storage facility where they were making the things, so this is close to the last syringe left. One of, maybe, a hundred. They need all they can get to restart the research, or everything the Division is trying to do will be lost.

"Kira's transporting the vaccination to a safer location. And she loses it." I finish happily, clutching the drawing to my chest.

"Cass-"

"Don't, 'Cass' me, Nick. This is wonderful! We can get the syringe back, which will draw Kira right to us! And that means we can use her for…I don't know, really. But she's head of the Division. If we kill her, it's only a matter of time before-"

"I'm not killing her, Cassie." Nick's jaw is set and his eyes hard when I meet them.

"What are you talking about?"

"I won't kill Kira. I'll do everything else, but I'm not killing her."

My mouth parts in surprise. "Are you fucking with me? After everything she's done?" Has he gone insane? Should I be worried enough to send him to Funny Farms?

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Nick starts to walk around me, back to the group. I push him back angrily.

"What, because I'm _just a kid_? I'm not thirteen any more, Nick. I'm twenty in a few months." He refuses to meet my angry gaze. I push against him again. "I'm so _sick _of you treating me like a child!"

"Stop it." I do. Not because I want to, but because Nick's Moved my arms to my sides.

"Let me go," I threaten.

"Not until you listen to me." I struggle against his Move, even though I know it's in vain. Nick's gotten way too good to try anything. "We are not going to kill Kira. We are not going to take down the Division." I start to protest, but he tightens the Move. "No. We're going to find your Mother. And then we're going to be done."

"You're an idiot," I spit.

"I know I am," Nick sighs, letting me go. "And this fighting thing needs to stop. I'm tired of your drama."

I bristle. "_My_ drama?" I'm about to fight more when I notice Nick is smiling. Which is a good sight. And I try to stop the little flutter developing in my chest. "You really are an idiot," I say again, warily this time.

"Yeah, I know. But that's why you love me, right?" He pulls me into a big bear hug, rubbing my back roughly. How he can stand it, especially in my less than savory state, I don't know. Though I'm not complaining.

"I suppose." My voice is muffled against his chest. His strong, firm che-_Stop it Cassie!_

He lets me go, giving me one more, blinding smile. "Why don't we take your picture and go tell the others."

"I don't suppose you're giving me a choice?" Damn, my head's hurting again, even more now with Nick's suddenly very un-Nick like behavior. I'd like to say I don't know what's gotten into him. But I do.

And she's going to be the death of us.

_a;sdlkfjpzoivj;zjvnh.a,sdnmf;adjf;ladjsf;lkj Sorry about that. And by that I mean the chapter. I promise, swear, vow, pledge that it's going to stop being so damn melancholy. Looking back at the first few chapters, I've realized how completely awful I've gotten at being true to the characters, and that annoys the hell out of me, so I'm going to try to get back on track. Truly, really, please slap me on the face when I start making the characters too much my own. I feel like I'm forgetting something…OH YEAH! REVIEW! Fer real. It might…uh…get me motivated to write the next chapter more quickly. *cough cough*_


	11. Caught

_**A/N I know, I know, this is supposed to be an OC chapter. But it's not. Again. BUT THE NEXT ONE WILL! Scout's honor, even though I never was a Scout or anything…or maybe this is all just a clever ruse. (Probably) Anyway. Okay. Let's do this. *nod***_

**Cassie's POV**

"Cassie! Cassie. Cassie? Cassie!" There's someone. Being annoying. Three guesses who.

"What do you want, Nick?" I grumble, rolling over. We're staying in Black one more day, so I'm trying to get as much sleep as I possibly can. Trying to stage a coup is sort of tiring.

"I have an idea." I sit up groggily, waiting for him to continue, which he does, breathlessly. "Okay, so, you know how I said I didn't want to kill Kira?" I nod slowly. "Well. I know how we can take down the Division, find your mother, _and_ keep Kira alive."

"You aren't making any sense." Personally, not much of what Nick's said the past few days has made sense. Something changed about him. I'd noticed it when I first came back, but…lately, it's just become that more apparent. He doesn't seem like he used to; he isn't as eager to _do something_ as he used to be. That's my job now.

And I can't say that I don't know what caused the change.

Even though I don't tell him this, (and I never plan on telling him, even after the deed is done) Kira is going to die, whether he wants her to or not.

"I know, I know. I don't want to tell you too much, in case we're being Watched, but when the time comes, everything I do will make perfect sense." This is six years ago all over again. Quite literally going into things in the dark. Even with my Watching almost perfected, I can't See what he's planning; just a vague series of seemingly unrelated events.

That still lead to us dead.

All of us; Selby and Mira and Lee and Xiao and Zhao and Emily and Pinky and me. And Nick. I can't tell who the other bodies belong to, just that there _are_ other bodies. Quite a few other bodies.

I mentally shake myself. Nick got us out of a sure death once before. Surely, _surely_ he can do it again. And even though he may well be insane, and even though I'd be a damn fool to do it, I completely and utterly trust Nick, with every fiber of my being.

Not that I'll admit that.

"Listen. It's all going to be fine. Everyone's been thinking hard about what to do with syringe, it's only a matter of time until someone comes up with a good plan." Nick smiles at me, a dazzling, self-satisfied smile.

"You really, really, truly are the stupidest person I have ever met in my life," I tell him as seriously as I can.

"I am quite aware, as you've been saying that for the past week on an hourly basis." He ruffles my hair, which I take grudgingly. It's better than calling me kid.

"He won't tell me," I groan to Mira, who always seems to be hovering around me these days.

"He won't tell any of us." She seems as irked as I am, which makes me like her just a little bit more. There's a brief pause in the conversation, then, "How do you know Selby?"

_I don't, I don't, I don't._

It'd taken me until just recently to realize who exactly Selby was, and I'd been avoiding being alone with him. As well as any questions that may arise. Unfortunately, it didn't appear that I've done a very good job.

"I don't know what you mean," I say shortly, bustling around the room. Nick, Lee, and Selby had slipped out of Black to do a quick sweep of the area, try to see if we'd be good to sneak away as soon as Xiao arrives. Alysia, the new girl that Zhao brought in, was _somewhere_, being annoying, probably.I haven't Seen any complications with getting out, but, recently, things have been changing faster than I can keep track of. The only thing that stays solid is the death. Which is entirely too worrisome.

"He told me he knew you." I freeze mid-fold. Nick has completely ruined the room, throwing his clothes everywhere. And Black, though not as trashy as I'd originally thought, doesn't exactly have room service, so it was thrown onto my back to clean up and prepare to leave.

"He's lying." My fingers flit nervously across the torn cotton of Nick's shirt. Selby was just a blip in the road; nothing that I needed to worry about. Sure, he was going to die with the rest of us, but that's as far as the concern needs to go.

"But he-"

"Are you the fucking police?" I snap, turning back to face her. She cocks a near-invisible eyebrow.

"Sorry," she says simply, though she doesn't break her eye contact. And I'm sure as hell not about to let her think she intimidates me into breaking it myself.

"You guys!" Lee barges into the room, a big grin on his face. I haven't gotten to know Lee, (or any of the new kids, for that matter) but I have come to find that he is very egocentric. In fact, he reminds me quite a bit of Nick. Well…pre-Kira-leaving Nick.

"Don't know how to knock?" Obviously, Lee doesn't hear me, or is choosing to ignore me, and goes on with whatever he felt is more important than what Mira and I were talking about.

"We saw her."

"Her? What her?" Mira asks her brother, standing to match him.

"Yeah, what 'her'?" He couldn't mean…surely I would have Seen something, or the _absence_ of something, if she was being Shaded. Surely.

"Kira," Lee whispers the word with much too much reverence for my liking. Before I can ask more, or even find out what and how he knows about Kira, Nick comes crashing into the room behind Lee, with Selby in his tracks and Alysia just behind him.

"We need to leave, _now_," Nick says. His face is flustered.

"No way." I fold my arms across my chest. If we leave, we'll just get captured! I mentally face palm myself; how hadn't I Seen this happening?

"I think we should go," Alysia announces, staring at Nick with a little string of drool hanging out of her mouth. I don't like her. At all. In the brief ten minutes I'd spent with her when Zhao brought her back last night, I'd already caught on to her holier-than-thou attitude. Not appealing. At all.

"I think you need to shut your pretty little mouth," I growl. "If we leave, we won't make it anywhere alive. Doesn't anyone understand-"

"_Nick, baby. Won't you come out and play with me?" One of Kira's near-black eyes stares through a crack in the door, swivelling around to try to lock on to one of us._

"_Get back, Kira." Nick is behind me, avoiding at Kira's eye. We're utterly trapped, all of us, in this tiny room._

"_All I want is to see you again. Is that so bad?" There's a loud bang on the other side of the door, and little motes of dust float down from the ceiling. Mira's eyes are as wide as saucers, her hand gripping onto Selby's. "LET ME IN," Kira screams, and there's another thud, much more ominous than the last._

"_What do we do?" Alysia whispers, her whole body shaking._

"_Scream."_

"Cassie?" I snap back to reality, only to find our lovely party staring at me. "What did you see?" Nick is watching me most closely of all. His eyes are wild, but not in fear.

"We're too late." The room freezes.

"What do you mean?" Nick asks urgently, taking a step towards me. "Cass, you need to tell me exactly what you-"

"Nick, baby. Won't you come out and play with me?" Six pairs of eyes focus on the door, then snap away instantly, desperately avoiding the glare from the single black marble staring out from a little crack in the well-worn door.

"Get back, Kira." Nick's voice wavers, just enough for me to notice.

"Lee, Mira," I whisper frantically. "Phase. See how many there are. Cover each other if you need to. Can you do that?" Lee nods immediately. Mira, however, hesitates.

"I can't. I-I'm not very goo-"

"If you want to die, go ahead and stay right here." Her eyes widen at my words, but she nods shortly, following her brother to the opposite wall. Both disappear almost immediately, despite Mira's unconfident words.

"All I want to do is see you again. Is that so bad?" Kira's voice is deathly persuasive. The first bang comes, and I'm showered in dirt.

"Alysia, you need to get ready to Scream. Nick? I think you know what you need to do."

"There's six of them, including Kira," Mira says, breathless. I close my eyes.

"We can take them." There's not a single doubt in my mind. Something is blocking my Sight all of a sudden, but I _know_ that we can handle it. As long as Nick keeps his head in the game, there'll be a limited amount of complications. Which is just want we want. No complications, and an easy out.

Time slows down. I hear Kira through the door again. The second bang comes. And door starts to collapse.

"Three!" Nick shouts, gesturing Alysia forward, next to him. Selby leaps forward as well, holding…a sword. Well. That's strange. "TWO!" The door is almost gone, and we can see everyone through it. Kira's fighting her way through the rubble, coming closer every second. I blink, and she's in.

"One." But it doesn't come from Nick. It comes from Kira. I start to surge towards her, a burning igniting deep in my chest. I want to kill her. I want to absolutely rip her limb from fucking limb. I can't move.

"Wonderful to see you again," Kira says sweetly to the completely silent room. Nick is staring at her, open-mouthed and with a far-off look in his eyes. "Most of might have noticed you can't move," she gestures to the small group behind her. "Rather advanced Movers. Quite handy, I'd say." She laughs then, and that one laugh dregs up memories I'd hoped to forget. She'd had the same laugh, that same, smug grin the day she'd told me to leave, the day that changed my life.

"Let us go," I whisper, too worked up to do much more. Kira turns her attention to me for the first time, looking a bit surprised at what she sees.

"Cassie? My, you've gotten big." Her down-turned eyes are sparkling as she surveys me as if I'm some sort of prey. "What are you doing back?"

"What I should have done before I left. Kill you." Finally, I manage to break through the Move on me and make a break for Kira

_Click_.

I freeze, my breath coming in short puffs. "Don't move, Cassie." Nick's voice wobbles, the mouth of the gun pressing against my temple.

"Stop the Push," I snarl at Kira. She winks at me.

"No Push this time, Cass."

"Nick?"

"Just don't move, okay?" The gun presses hard against my skin and, even though I know I shouldn't, I feel myself start to tremble.

"This isn't how I'm supposed to die, Nick."

"You've seen wrong before," Kira interjects, her eyes flashing black. The gun's pressure becomes harder. Is it a Push? Nick's broken through them before, surely he's be able to now. Unless he didn't want to.

I move just enough to face Nick, the gun pressed perfectly in the middle of my forehead. I stare Nick straight in the eyes, defiant, challenging. "Pull it, Nick." His jaw tightens and the finger on the trigger tenses. "Do it, Nick. Give it to me." My voice is soft.

"Let her go!" Mira shrieks, fighting against the Move. Kira raises on finger and one of the Movers behind her makes a thrashing motion with his hand. Mira goes crashing against the wall.

"GOD! MIRA!" Lee somehow rips through his Move and rushes over to his sister, his hands flitting around her head, which is bleeding profusely.

"If you want them to live, you'll kill her," Kira says to Nick, taking a step closer to him. "And _when_ you do, you can join me at the Division." She trails a hand across Nick's chest, her arms coming to envelope him. Nick holds my gaze even with Kira's lips moving sinuously against his neck.

"Pull the trigger," Kira and I say, damn close to simultaneously.

Will he do it? I'm not sure. Ten minutes ago, the most important thing was leaving before Kira arrived in _days_, not _minutes_. The most important thing was trying to figure out how to pick up the syringe full of whatever. The most important thing was finding my mother.

_Not_ convincing Nick, my best friend, _my Nick_, to back away with the gun, using patented reverse-psychology. Definitely not working, however, with Kira's sweet voice overpowering my own, rubbed raw with the recent influx of emotion.

"What are you going to do, Nick?" Even with the gun held between my eyes, even with the Movers holding onto my companions, even with Kira's wandering hands on Nick, _my Nick's_, body, I don't drop my gaze, don't waver for one single moment. The gun's path moves from my forehead to my chest. It presses against my sternum, moving faintly with my heartbeat.

"Sorry," he mumbles.

_Bang_.

_**A/N FANTASTIC! A freakin' cliff hanger. And a fail cliff hanger at that. So. I know I keep threatening to threaten. And I guess it's working. I must have hit a record last time with reviews, even if it wasn't as much as I wanted. D: But I think I'm going to try giving everyone who reviews a teaser of the next chapter. BRIBERY! So review. Pls? I LOVE YOU! **_


	12. Shot

_**Oh, snap. She did NOT just go there! But. I did. I couldn't leave a cliffhanger for too long, so no OC chapter this time (Sort of). Maybe next time? Maybe not. Maybe not at all. Ever. OR MAYBE SO! Anyway! Enjoy!**_

**Cassie's POV**

_Bang_.

My body erupts in pain and I fall to the ground, curling into a ball. "It hurts!" I sob, clutching at my chest, where a thick, red liquid pours over my trembling fingers.

"Excellent job, Nick," Kira's voice wavers, her whole form little more than a fuzzy blob.

I don't understand how anyone could stand this pain for as long as some do. I can't imagine having to suffer through this for another second.

"CASSIE?" Who's voice is that? I can't place anything in this state. All I feel is a plethora of vibrations where people step, strange noises invading my eardrums that sound nothing like voices, flashes of light and color that refuse to register as anything in my mind. And soon-or maybe it's hours later-the pain starts to recede, replaced by a hollow, numbing feeling. And I know that it won't last much longer.

_BANG_.

I don't know when the second shot comes, or who it hits. I don't even know how long I'm lying on the floor, whimpering, before someone yanks me off the ground, their fingers digging into my armpits.

"It's going to be okay, Cass, I promise."

And I'm gone.

**Mira's POV**

_Bang_.

The sound echoes around the room, all of us silent, all of us staring. Even the girl, Kira, is struck silent, her eyes locked on Cassie.

For just a second, I believe that Nick missed. That he hadn't actually shot her. Cassie seems to believe it too; she looks down at her chest, patting at it frantically with a stricken expression. And then the blood blooms forth like some sort of macabre flower, spreading across her dingy shirt quicker than I can keep track.

She falls. And I almost start crying out myself at her screams, completely forgetting about my own wounds, despite the blood dripping into my eyes.

"CASSIE?" Did that come from _my_ lips? I hadn't realized that I could emit such a dark, melancholy sound. It didn't take more than a heartbeat to find that it _wasn't _me that had screamed. It was Nick.

The gun is hanging loosely in his hand, the rest of his body tense. He, in turn, falls beside Cassie, his hands gently caressing her face.

"Excellent job, Nick." Kira comes up from behind him, running her hands over his broad shoulders. "I didn't think it would work. I _really_ didn't. You've had such an aversion to my Pushes before-so why was it different this time?" Nick's hands flutter around Cassie, his fingers darting through the red staining her chest.

"Oh, _god_! Cassie!" Nick's eyes are wide, wider than my own, and I join him kneeling beside Cassie. Something seizes at my arms and I'm thrown back, slamming into the wall opposite. Again.

"No, no, you naughty girl," Kira taunts, digging her nails into Nick's chest while grinning at me. "Nick?" The faintly sobbing man turns from Cassie, who's chest is barely moving, and meets Kira's gaze. Her eyes flash black and Nick quickly rises from his feet, his expression blank. He looks like an overgrown doll, moving by someone else's will. Which I suppose is rather accurate for the situation.

"Finish the rest of them." Kira finally moves away from Nick, stopping by Cassie's body to land a heavy kick to her side. "Let's go." She gestures at the Movers, who start to march out of the room in front of her. "I hope you all have a lovely day."

_BANG!_

In the space of a breath, my eyes dart over each of my companions, searching for a streak of red on Lee, a splatter of scarlet on Selby, a blush of pink staining Alysia's white shirt. I search desperately over my own body for any sign of a bullet, some sort of proof that I should be in pain.

Nothing.

And then I notice Kira stopping abruptly, her hand flying to her face. She spins around, a look of pure fury plastered on her face. Nick drops the gun.

"YOU _SHOT_ ME!" Kira screeches. Her hand moves from its place and I have to swallow down my bile. The entire left side of her face is in tatters; ribbons of flesh and muscle hang off the bone. I can see her the inside of her mouth through her cheek.

"I'm glad you noticed," Nick says quietly, keeping his eyes on the ground. Kira's are soot black, whether from rage or attempted Push I don't know.

"You're going to die for this, Nick," she growls, taking a menacing step towards him. What is she going to do? It appears as if she's unarmed and the Movers won't be able to do much against Nick. "_You_." Kira's eyes snap off of Nick, and, before I can tear my gaze away, she's locked in on me.

_Kill him._ Kira's voice is inside my head. The world fades to just her. Just her, and just me.

"No," I say softly.

_After he's killed your friend? Don't forget your parents…_

"My…My parents?" There's a flash of memory that I vaguely recall I shoved deep in my mind. The memory is just a moment long, just long enough for me to see him with my parents' blood on his hands. _Nick._

_He killed your parents. He killed your friend. You've been waiting for this moment. Go ahead. Kill him._ The world slowly dissolves back to normal, this time with a gun in _my_ hand. All of the wrath that I've been holding down over the years starts to bubble forth and breaks through the dam I carefully constructed. I drop the gun, my hands shaking too hard to hold on.

_Do it. Kill him._

"Mira?" Who is that? Who's trying to interrupt my vengeance? "Mira, you're Pushed."

"I'm _not_," I snarl. Whoever was talking comes next to me, but I'm too angry to see anything more than Nick. Nick, the man who killed Cassie. Nick, the man who killed my parents. Nick, who _I_ will kill.

"You _are_! Whatever you're thinking is a lie!" I whip around, my nose almost touching Lee's. Immediately, my eyes fill with tears.

"He _killed_ our parents, Lee, and you're defending him?"

"No one killed our parents, Meer. They _died_." His voice is too calm, too calculating. He doesn't even sound like himself.

"Stop _lying!_" And then there's another memory. I gasp sharply. "You _helped him_!"

_That's right, Mira. Your own brother was planning your parents' murder with Nick. He helped kill them. You were there. You saw it._

"HOW COULD YOU KILL THEM?" I shove my fists into Lee's chest, pushing him backwards.

"Finish them!" Kira's hand is back over her face in some sort of attempt to keep her skin together. Selby is frozen to the side, Alysia beside him. Nick is crouched over Cassie's body. Soon, his will be draped over hers.

I shove Lee again with all my might and he stumbles to the ground over a discarded shoe. Tears are falling fast down my face; I can feel my nose running. Despite the emotions exploding out of me, I'm perfectly steady as I lean down and pick up the gun. The gun that Nick had used to commit his latest murder. His _last_ murder.

_Your parents. Your friend. Are you going to let him get the rest of the people you care about?_

"No," I whisper, lifting my arm. I level the gun, the barrel pointed squarely at the back of Nick's head.

_**Meer. What are you doing?**_ A strange voice cuts through the sharpness in my mind. It's disconcerting, hearing these words through the roiling seas of emotions. _**It's all a lie. Your parents weren't killed. You didn't know Nick before a few days ago.**_

"_That's_ a lie." The gun is still aimed perfectly, but my finger is shaking on the trigger. Just a little pressure and he'll be dead. My revenge will be had. And then I'll take care of Lee. Once they're gone, Selby and I can start a new life. Run away and forget all about this.

_Do it Mira. Your parents wanted it? Don't you remember?_

My father's dying words: "Avenge us."

_**It's a lie. Mira, it's a lie. This isn't you. This isn't who you are! You have to come back. Now!**_ Come back? Come back where? I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, exactly where I've always been. Just because I've remembered those painful memories doesn't mean they haven't always been there, stuck in the back of my mind.

"Mira." Selby's beside me, his hand hovering above my arm. "You don't want to do this."

"Yes. Yes I do." I can barely hear my voice.

"Put down the gun. You're under a Push." Selby's too calm, just like Lee. My arm wavers, just a little dip from its steady line.

"I'm not. I'd know if I was." Why is everyone telling me I'm being Pushed? I never looked at Kira. She hasn't had the chance to put me under. It's only this situation, so similar to how _they_ were killed. "I need to make this right." I squeeze the trigger.

_Click_.

No bang. No bullet. No Nick falling over Cassie's body in agony. Just a hollow click.

_Click, click, click._ No matter how many times I pull the trigger, there's nothing more than the click. "Fuck!" I scream, throwing the gun on the floor angrily.

_Figure out another way._

_**Walk away Mira. Shake it off.**_

_Kill them._

_**Don't listen.**_

I fall to my knees, cradling my head. The dual voices and conflicting memories clash in my mind, banging against the walls of my skull until all I see are lights.

"Cover your ears." I do as I'm told without thinking. And even through my hands pressed tight against my ears, stifling the voices as well as the noises from around, I still hear the high-pitched keen that shakes the room and shatters the glass. I must black out, for, when I open my eyes, Kira and her minions are gone and I'm left with an empty feeling of lost memories.

"Whahappened?" I slur, suddenly too tired to move.

"You were Pushed." It's Alysia beside me, crouching and pushing my sweaty hair out of my tear-streaked face. "You almost killed Nick. And Lee."

"I know that," I say groggily. "I mean, where did Kira go?"

"I Screamed. They're gone," she says back, a bit surprised. I nod my understanding and start to drift off.

"Don't let her sleep," someone commands. Nick, I think. "She probably has a concussion. Let's just get her and Cassie in the car. Selby, you need to start Stitching Cass."

"I dun have a concussion." My eyelids can't possibly stay open, each blink willing them to stay closed. "I'll be fine."

"It's going to be okay, Cass, I promise." Through my eyelashes, I see Lee and Selby tenderly lifting Cassie's perfectly still body off the floor.

"Stay awake," Nick insists, pointedly keeping his back to Cassie.

"I can't," I admit with a yawn.

And I fall asleep.

**DOES SHE LIVE? DOES SHE DIE? You'll have to stick around to find out. And we're doing the same thing: review and you get a teaser. :DD Love ya guys!**


	13. Woken

_**Ooh, hot damn. She did it again. Wth. N' stuff. Anywho, do enjoy, dear friends of mine. Apologies for the long delay; I decided to do NaNo this month, so I've been focused on that. And then I got distracted by Virtual Hogwarts…which is super fun. Jus' sayin. (NERDSHOUTOUT-IF YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE A CHARRIE ON THERE, TELL ME AND WE CAN NERD OUT TOGETHER. DOES THAT SOUND GOOD? :3)**_

**Cassie's POV**

There's nothing but a swirling darkness. My eyes are open, that I know, but I see nothing but white. Thick, heavy white that I can _taste_. White that I can _hear_. It's absolutely suffocating, this white. At the same time, it's peaceful. Still, silent, and lonely. But not alone. I'm surrounded by people, by voices. They're shouting at me. And it _hurts_.

Single words drift out of the clamor; my name, broken bits of prayer, _please_. Over and over_. Please, please, please, please_.

I can't handle it. All the pleading, all the screaming, all the noise and the white and the _nothing_. I can't breathe against the weight of it all. My body is crumbling under the pressure. Little chips of my skin rain off of my body, then chunks, before my entire being is breaking down to dust that floats, suspended, in the white.

"_Cassie, please_."

My body, drifting uselessly in the white, vibrates with the force of the words, pushing the particles back together painfully. Just as I begin to split up again, new words slam me into form. It hurts so badly I could scream, if only I could find a voice as a cloud of substance. If only I could find a voice to yell back at them, to get them to stop and leave me to float in peace.

"_Cassie! Can you hear me?"_ Yes, I can fucking hear you. Leave me. Alone.

The whiteness around me starts to undulate, waves of gray coming to crash through my body. The disturbance throws me together even more quickly than the words did, until the dust of me is just _me_ again. I'm whole and it hurts. I don't want this; I want to go back to being nothing, to float in nothing. The suffocating white was better than this painful, clashing sea of gray. And the noises; my god, the _noises_. They're so strong, I expect them to materialize into an axe and split my head open.

My body is thrown up the crest of one of the waves and I fly through the nothing, my limbs bucking on the way down as more waves slam into me. My back arches against the air, my hands curl into fists. Everything _hurts_ and all of that is magnified by the cacophony that's surrounding me.

Somewhere between a descent from one wave and an ascent from another, something explodes inside of me. Or maybe it explodes around me. Whatever the case, there's an explosion and the gray disappears, dissolves with a flash of light bright enough to pierce my brain. The light forms a tunnel and the force of the explosion pushes me through it, faster and faster. So fast, the breath is squeezed from my lungs. So fast, my skin is plastered to my skull and my body feels like it's squishing into paper.

I shoot through the mouth of the light, into a dull world. My torso jerks forward, carried on by the momentum. My eyelids rip open and my breath returns painfully. The noise has faded to a dull roar, dull like the colors of the world around me, dull like the feeling tingling in my fingertips and my scalp.

"_Oh, god!"_ Hands are all over my body, patting at my face, pinching my arms, stroking my hair. I shuddered under the weight of it all, collapse back down. But my eyes stay open and stare around me. Faces; familiar faces, faces that, if I could just concentrate a little better, I might be able to remember…

Instead of remembrance, a flame of pain burns up from my chest, singing right through my heart and pumping through my veins. My mouth opens to scream, and, though I feel it deep in my throat, I hear nothing but the voices yelling instead. I squirm on the ground, try to get away from the fire, plead for it to stop.

And it does.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Are _you_ going to be okay?"

"I'm more concerned about _her_."

"So? Will she be fine?"

"Where are we supposed to go now?"

"We can't do anything until Cassie's better…"

"_Is she okay?_"

"I'm fine," I groan, having to speak much louder than I want over the many different conversations going on around me. Every inch of me is protesting against it, but I struggle to sit up, finding it quite difficult to do with the soft something I'm on practically sucking me back in.

"Cassie," someone sighs and throws their arms around me. It takes me a moment to recognize the warm embrace as belonging to Mira.

"You're hurting me." My eyebrows knit together as I try to keep myself still. Moving too much hurts, hurts a _lot_. Mira snaps away from me like I just told her I have some deadly disease. Her blue eyes are stretched open in horror.

"I-I'm so s-sorry," she stutters. Her hands flit around her general area anxiously.

"It's…okay?" I'm not really sure, to be honest. I think everything's okay. I can feel all of my limbs, I can move my fingers, my toes. I can see and hear and smell and taste. I know my name and everyone around me, just not why they're so worried…

My fingers drift from my sides to my chest. Which doesn't seem to have anything covering it. "WHAT THE-" I flip over, shoving my body as far as I can onto what appears to be a very crude bed. "WHY AM I NAKED?" Every inch of me is on fire, more from the embarrassment than the pain.

"Don't worry," a girl drawls; the unmistakable tone of Alysia. "The only boy that's been in here with you like that in Selby."

"THAT DIDN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION!" I shriek, absolutely shaking with my rage. They could have, like, _done things_ to me. Or something. "ARE YOU THAT SICK THAT YOU WANTED TO STARE AT ME WHEN I WAS PASSED OUT?"

"Please, don't flatter yourself." Alysia laughs coldly.

"Don't be rude," Mira admonishes. Rude. What's rude is me being stark-fucking-naked from the waist up. What if-oh, god, what if Nick saw me? I don't know if I trust Alysia telling me that it was only Selby seeing me, which is bad enough, trust me.

"I had to Stitch you. And having your shirt off made it easier for me to get do it properly." I strain my neck around and catch a bit of Selby's face. It's about as pink as it can get; somehow I think that, should I slap it, I could make it just a tad bit pinker.

"_Stitch_ me? Why the-What's going on?" My hysteria level is rising rapidly. I can feel the blood pounding through my body, almost to the point where it hurts.

"You…don't remember?" Mira kneels down beside me, coming into semi-focus.

"I'm asking you because I _do_." God, is _everyone_ an idiot?

"Um, you know, I…somehow think that I need to work on you a little more," Selby mutters, barely loud enough for me to hear.

"Excuse me?" Was that some sort of perverted comment? Has he been _fondling _me? I'll kill the little bastard, I swear…If it weren't for the sudden haze of fatigue that's creeping at the edges of my consciousness.

"You're bleeding." Mira, the only person I can see at this point, shoves her hand forward, wiggling underneath me and prodding at something just below my left breast. I try to squirm away, but her hand disappears just as quickly as it came. Her fingers are stained crimson.

"Shit," she whispers. "Okay, Cass, we'll put a shirt on you or whatever, but I need you to go back to sleep."

"You can't just tell me to sleep," I protest, though my tongue drags against the bottom of my mouth when I say it. "I'm _not_ going to…I'm not sleeping…" Mira starts to fade slowly, dissolving against the black. I fight, though. I can't let them have me lying around naked anymore. It isn't becoming of a young lady.

"Alysia?"

"I'm on it." I've almost beaten the sleep creeping in when there's a bone melting screeching that pushes me over the abyss.

Waking up the second time is even worse than the first. Instead of my senses coming back to me slowly, they crash in with the force of a train, knock me into reality without time to adjust. The first thing I notice is that I have clothes on, which is definitely a good thing. Next, I find that I'm not in the same bed that I was in earlier. It's less of a mass of blankets and more of a _mattress_. I have no recollection of being moved, though, and thus my first clear emotion is confusion.

My gaze wanders from the floral patterned comforter covering me to the body sitting at the edge of the bed. It's a bit dark, but I _think_ it's Nick. I feel like I should be angry at him for something, that I should punch him as hard as I possible can, but I can't, for the life of my, remember why.

In my strain to remember, it takes me a moment to notice that Nick's form is shaking slightly, hunched in over himself. Against the faint light behind him, I swear that I see some sort of wetness…

"Nick, you _douche_. Are you…_crying_?" I exclaim. I sit up much too fast, only to fall back against the softness behind me.

"I'm not _crying_," Nick tells me. He turns his face away but not quickly enough to hide THE TRUTH. "There was just something in my eye. Pollen…or something."

"Yeah, okay." I roll my eyes and nudge him playfully. Why would he be _crying_? He's a _man_ for fuck's sake. Nick takes a shuddering breath and turns back to me.

"Are you feeling okay?" He sure knows how to recover, I'll give him that much. It doesn't look like he's had any sort of feelings other than the perpetual dead-pan he's seem to have lately.

I wait a moment before answering him, taking an assessment of my body. "I…_think_ so. Jesus, Nick, what happened?"

"What…what do you _mean_, what happened?"

I roll my eyes up at the ceiling. "Well, I didn't just_ poof_ like this, did I?"

"You don't remember?" Nick asks slowly. He leans unconsciously towards me. "What's the last thing you remember?" I stare at him intently, thinking back as far as a I can. Gray glimmers of images flash through m mind, half-formed and too finite for me to grasp onto and drag out into a proper memory.

"I…I remember Seeing Kira coming to Black…" My body stiffens violently. "_Fuck_, Kira! We-we've got to get out of here. Kira's coming, she's going to get-we aren't ready for her to-" Arms are flying everywhere, legs are thrashing on the bed. I'm moving so quickly, it looks as if there's three of me. "Don't just _sit there_," I scream at Nick. "We've got to leave-"

"Kira's already gone," he says calmly, fighting through my rogue limbs to place a hand on my shoulder. "She's been here. We're not even in Black any more."

My muscles twitch nervously. "What are you talking about?" Now that I pay attention, though, this room is much too nice for Black. There aren't any random stains or cockroaches scuttling in the corners. It doesn't smell perpetually of smoke, nor do I hear the noises of the bar just down the hallway. "Then…where _are_ we?"

"We're staying with a friend."

"A friend?" An edge of suspicion creeps into my voice. "Which friend?"

"One of our, um. New friends." Nick coughs uncomfortably, a blush creeping up his neck. Why in the world…

"You're hiding something," I say accusingly. He's hiding a lot of things. I curse myself for having a gaping hole stuck in the middle of my memories. If I knew what _had_ happened, what _is_ happening might be making a little more sense.

"Well…see, after you got shot-"

"I WAS_ SHOT?_" Isn't that important enough to be told first? Shouldn't I have been informed? Nick, however, doesn't seem to share my concerns about this having not been brought up earlier.

"I…thought you knew? Didn't you wonder about why Selby was Stitching you?"

"I didn't even know he was Stitching me until I woke up last time. Half naked, I might add."

"You were _naked_." The blush on Nick's neck flares up to his cheeks. "_NAKED?_"

"A little bit. But can we not worry about my various states of nudity?" My heart is speeding with the excitement. "How was I _shot_?" My fingers fight under the covers and up the over-large shirt I have on, flattening against my stomach and drifting up to where I can still feel the shadow of Mira's touch. There-where she had been prodding-a puckered blemish, just the size of a bullet and barely two inches from my heart.

"When Kira showed up, things got crazy…" Nick trails off. He's holding back-I can tell. I don't understand _why_, though. Nick isn't supposed to be hiding things from me; he's supposed to tell me everything. We're supposed to be partners, friends.

"What are you keeping from me?" Nick shakes his head. "_Tell me_." I shout this, so loud my voice breaks. Nick stays silent, refusing to meet my gaze. What the hell is wrong with him? I'm sitting here with a _gunshot wound_, and he's not telling me how it happened. I don't understand what's changed in him, or when it happened. He's different; and I don't like it. One bit. "What _happened _to you?" I should be more concerned about what happened to me, about what happened to everyone in the glitch in my memory. I should be more worried about what's going to happen now, where we're going from this point, how everything's going to work out.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Nick yanks his hand off of my shoulder; I hadn't even realized it was still there. "Nothing's changing between us, if that's what you're trying to get at. We're exactly the same as we were six years ago." His face is hard; too hard for me. Too serious.

"If by that you mean that I'm still vastly more intelligent than you, then I suppose you're right." I laugh anxiously, trying to diffuse the tension I've created. Nick's lips tug up in a shadow of a grin. I sigh. Usually, I wouldn't let up so easily, but I can't find the energy in me to keep it going. Too much has happened and I'm utterly drained. As soon as I rest, though, I swear… "Now, um, who's house are we at again?" Nick looks much too relieved that the subject's been changed.

"That's actually sort of a long story. I hope you don't mind listening?" I shake my head. Honestly, I could listen to Nick for hours right now. In the second between topics, he's melted back into something I'm familiar with, not the strange Nick who's so vehement about Kira or the Nick who cries like a pussy. He's just Nick. My Nick.

I inwardly shake myself. Not _my_ Nick. Never _my_ Nick. He's made that quite clear. _We're exactly the same as we were six years ago…_ Is that what's changed? Not Nick, but me? And he's just been trying to keep me from getting my heart hurt? My fingers yank at the edge of the comforter. This thought distresses me; it's not…it's not like I _really_ have any feelings for him. I decided that a while ago. _That_ much I remember. So he should be back to normal. He should be able to be just as he's always been.

Right?

Does he know something I don't? Should I be worried?

Oh, shit. He's talking.

_He's talking_.

I nod along with what he's saying. Hopefully, I'm not agreeing to anything outlandish.

There must be some god; the door bursts open before I have to fake my way through more of what Nick is saying. A girl with close-cropped black hair stomps in, a scowl on her sharp features.

"Nick Gant, you little dickface. You have a lot of explaining to do."

_**So, I hate to sort of bribe, you, y'know, if I get lots of reviews I might just be a little more inclined to get things done quicker…*hinthint* Even though I got TONS with this last chapter, which made me extremely happy. Spoiler for reviewers, and, hopefully, I'll have the next chappie done before too long. 3 Also, thank you, everyone, for all of your support and lovely comments. You make me feel good about myself. ^^ HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ALL! I'll see you next year!**_


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